While traveling, there are few concepts that I believe with more justified reasoning than the idea of “traveler’s karma.”

Exploring foreign lands with all of your possessions on your back and all of your money in your pocket has the potential to wreak havoc upon your mind and can open the ugly door of paranoia.

One way I walk into the unknown with more confidence is by having the belief that, if I make small efforts to help people and not take advantage of anyone I encounter, then my positive actions will come back to me when I may need it most.

Karma is a noble person’s way of displaying selfishness – and selfish priority number one while traveling abroad is to stay safe.

Of course, this method is not foolproof and may sound absurd to a logical person. But I ask that fact-based person if they have ever listened to their gut feeling or made decisions based on love? Where is the logic in that?

There are a few instances of traveler’s karma when I have made an effort to pay back what I owe, or even taken a step ahead in the game. The most recent example happened a few months ago in the polluted and congested Indian city of Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.

From the school I was working at, a German friend and I took the 100-mile trip to Agra. This five-hour trip cost our taxi five tires, and as I was a new entrant in India, a lot of lip from me.

At the time, I did not understand how common flat tires were, and we made the best of the situation by talking to locals in each small town we stopped in. When the car was getting serviced, my friend and I waited outside in the blistering sun.

Before we knew it, 18 people surrounded us just to get a closer look and maybe practice their few words of English on real Westerners.

We eventually made it to our guesthouse in Agra, the Shanti Lounge. For the expensive price of 11 dollars a night, we were given a small room with a perfect window view (with jail cell-style bars) of the Taj Mahal, which was only a few hundred yards away.

This room had a rickety, circa 1960s fan that raced to “high” for 30 seconds in between every power outage – not a comfortable scenario for a hot and humid Indian summer night. There was no chance of sleeping during those sweltering hours.

It was warm enough outside that I, like all of the locals in the city, decided to sleep on the flat cement rooftop.

Before dealing with the comfort of an unrelenting bed, I knew it would be best to grab a mosquito coil to reduce the chance of itchy bites and possible malaria.

I did not have my money on me, but I told the wandering shop owner that I would pay the 50 rupees (1 dollar) for the coil the following day. I gave him my word that I would pay him back, but with a visit to the Taj in the following morning’s plans, I simply forgot.

I did not recall the midnight promise for a couple of weeks, and knew that I had to reconcile the weight I had placed upon the wrong side of the karma scale.

Months later, when my mom visited me in India, we stayed in a place that accommodated Western needs (like any Holiday Inn, but with bell boys boasting cheek-spanning moustaches) instead of the Shanti Lounge.

I did, however, make a special trip to the shop owner of the Shanti Lounge and reminded him of my debt. I paid him the 50 rupees and an extra 50 to tip the karma scale in the positive direction.

I understand that most Westerners will not subscribe to the idea of karma; it is not common in our culture. Most of us in the Western world have absolute freedom of religion, and, in the majority of these religions, the concept is absent or different.

You don’t have to believe in it, but I find that when I do good deeds, I experience better outcomes in my life. Perhaps those fortunate outcomes have other sources, perhaps it is just luck, or something bigger, but there is nothing that will convince me that acting with karma in mind is a bad idea.

When you find yourself abroad, talk to other travelers, and you will hear this exact concept from many of the people who span the globe. I believe that when you purposely tip the karma scale in the positive direction, life feels better.

When you board the plane in America and exit the same plane in a foreign land, be sure to leave that place in a better condition than it was in when you arrived.

When you enter a land and have no concept of what is right or wrong, safe or stupid, normal or offensive and you do not know anybody for a thousand miles, you walk along a thin layer of ice that can crack at any step.

Even the sole feeling of doing a good deed or covering your tracks will enhance your confidence and lighten your step while walking the unknown voyage of discovery.

– Brad Hurvitz is an Oregon State U. graduate student in business administration.