Karma: The Law of Cause and Effect

There was once a highwayman who would rob and kill the travellers who came his way. One day a wandering rishi came by who had no possessions but his wisdom. He asked the robber why he lived in that wicked way; did he not know what sins he was committing? The robber replied that it was the only way he had, to feed his parents, wife and children. Then the sage wanted to know if the robber's family knew just how he earned his livelihood. No, said he, they thought him a merchant. "Well, go to your family," the sage told him, "and tell them how you live, and ask them if they are willing to share the bad karma you are making through these evil deeds. I promise to wait here." (Karma means action; what in some religions is called "sin" the Hindu calls bad karma, which brings its own punishment.). "Surely they will," said the robber; but he went home and asked his parents if they knew how he had been supporting the family all this time. They were horrified. So were his wife and children. They said, "Why, it is your duty to support us." None was willing to share his guilt.
This opened the robber's eyes. He totally changed his way of life, and eventually became the poet Valmiki. So, says the Hindu, each man must bear the effect of his own karma, good or bad. My fate in the future will be the effect of my action today; my fate today was caused by my action in the past. Through following dharma I make good karma.