There is a king who has vast possessions. But he is a worthless king. He spends all his energy and money in selfish pursuits and luxuries and has no care for his subjects. In his next birth he is born blind and becomes a beggar and thus compensates for his wrong doings.
Now this king has a servant who is honest and faithful and hard-working. In his next birth because of his merits he is born into a cultured and well-to-do family. One day, when he is going along the street he hears a pitiable cry from the pavement. It is from the blind beggar who was the king in his previous life crying aloud with outstretched hands, Have pity. Give me a penny in the name of the Lord. And because all actions however trivial, are inwardly determined by the Sanskaric ties, creating claims and counter-claims, the rich man is unconsciously drawn towards the beggar and gives him a few copper coins. A king crying out for alms and a servant taking pity on him—what a comedy, what an irony of fate!
This is the working of the law of karma, the expression of justice in the world of values. The law of karma is impartial and inexorable. It knows no concessions, gives no preferences, makes no exceptions. It dispenses justice.
-The Everything and the Nothing, p53