When I was a child I used to enjoy the annual ‘trick or treat’. Our friendly neighbours would give us sweats, chocolate and, best of all, money. As a child, I thought this was great!

Now, 30 years later, and I’m on the other side of the door – and I have to admit I’m very bad. On trick or treat night, I turn out the lights and pretend to be out! I feel like a modern day scrooge, because I don’t want to answer the door and give away my Kit-Kats or money.

One of the laws of the universe is – “as you give so shall your receive”.

Since I benefited from trick or treat, I feel a vague karmic responsibility to give in return. But, in this case, I feel more inspired to be stingy, and even though I’m not particularly a miserly person.

This year I was giving a meditation class in town, so I only had to pretend to be out for half an hour!

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Another funny story – when I was a child – some trick or treaters came to the door and as usual said:

“Trick or treat?”

I thought I would say “Trick” and see what happens.

The young boys thought this was funny, and proceeded to smear some messy paste on our front door.

I thought it was kind of funny, but my mother didn’t. I remember her cleaning up the mess (and it was really hard to get off).

I don’t know why, but it didn’t occur to me to do the cleaning.

Nowadays, I’ve definitely paid for that karma. I like a clean and tidy house in a way I never appreciated as a child. If I lived with my younger self, I would probably find him a bit frustrating.

In compensation, I do plenty of cleaning up after other people now! So I have made some progress in this incarnation, even if I don’t answer the door to trick or treaters.