I’m pretty honest. But today I had an encounter with dishonesty and instant karma.

I give blood as often as I can. Fewer people are donating these days, and often they don’t have enough blood. I used to go to the blood bank a few blocks from my home, but on Mondays the one 3 miles away gives out a free movie ticket, so I went there last time. So today I went again.

I signed the register and the guy behind the desk said he’d be right with me. The woman next to him stood up and went somewhere. A few minutes later, she came back and handed me my movie ticket. Then the guy went over to one of the screens and set it up for me to answer the questions about my health. I answered the questions and then sat quietly and did some work on my computer- there were two people ahead of me.

Pretty soon I was all alone. Then the guy came over to me and handed me something just as my name was called. I took it and stood up to follow a woman into the private room so she could take my temperature, blood pressure, pulse and hemoglobin (iron) count. As I stood, I realized he had given me a second movie ticket! I almost said something, but I just put it in my belly pack with the other one and followed the woman, wondering if I should say anything.

The Stanford Blood Center gives points for donating. I’ve asked them many times to let us buy movie tickets with our points instead of the paraphernalia in their catalog, but to no avail. Finally I started coming to this other office, burning a bit more gas just for the free ticket. Should I say something and give back the extra ticket?

The nurse administered the tests and then left me alone to sign the final form. I signed, left the room and she pointed to an empty blood-drawing chair and instructed me toward it. A guy came over, introduced himself as Chris, and began talking to me and prepping my right arm. He finished and inserted the needle, almost painlessly. I was in good hands. He noticed a clamp (looked like a scissor) was tucked under my wrist, so moved it to the side. As he withdrew his hand, his finger, in the latex glove, brushed the blood tube. Rubber against rubber has a lot of friction. The needle was yanked out of my vein and blood spurted! He quickly grabbed a piece of gauze and pressed it against my vein. A coworker saw the mess and came over to help.

It took about five minutes for the 2 of them to clean everything up and bandage my arm. There was no harm done- and only about a teaspoon of blood had been spilled, but it had spurted about 4 feet and had to be cleaned up. I told Chris not to worry about it, but he did. He said it was all his fault. I suggested he was just working out a bit of karma, but it didn’t assuage his guilt. I said, “Would it help if I scolded you?”  He said, “No. Thanks for offering, but I’m hardest on myself.”  And then my brain thought, “maybe it’s my karma…”

And then it hit me- it could be an instant-karma reaction to keeping the second movie ticket! I don’t believe in karma, but I felt embarrassed. And then my brain thought, “Maybe they gave you two so you could take some responsibility for the mishap and ease his guilt.” I felt the embarrassment rising again.

“Chris,” I said, “would you like to hear an interpretation of it that makes it my karma?” He furrowed his brow, then came over. I told him about the 2 movie tickets. But no, he wouldn’t have it. I was surprised- he was a bit amused, but wasn’t going to share the blame.

Finally the needle was in my other arm and the bag was filling. A short while later, Chris came over and gave me an envelope. I could see a little bit through the envelope- another movie ticket! He knew I already had one too many, and yet he gave me another! So now I was fated to go home with three.

At home, I opened the envelope. I was wrong- there were two inside! Maybe I’ll save the gas next time…