The ad that I placed in the paper said, "Real nice tires, nearly new chrome wheels, come get them!"

I priced them at fifty percent of what I paid for them. Two days passed and the first call came in..."Hi, would you take a money order for the wheels and tires....and can you meet us at the Supermall? We can come down tomorrow!"

The voice sounded foreign and anxious and I got a funny feeling about it. I had read recently about money order fraud, and the request to meet at the mall seemed weird too. "No," I said, "money orders scare me...cash is better."

The caller agreed and said he would meet me the next afternoon and I agreed, though I still felt funny about the deal.

When the time arrived, I made the short drive down to the mall and thought about the potential scenarios. You never know what strangeness can occur in a hastily arranged, person to person cash-for-goods situation and even though the mall is a busy place and the streets were still lit with late afternoon sun, my mind drifted toward the darker outcomes.

Since it was two people who were supposed to be there to meet me, and I was by myself, they could just wave a knife or gun in my face, take my wheels and tires and load them up and then and drive off.

Not much I could do.

Or they could try to persuade me to take a money order even though I had declined it on the phone and then I might have to be rude with them, which could also end up in some unpleasantness.

I reassured myself that this was dumb to think and soon I saw the red car that the caller said he'd be driving parked at a tire store.

The guy standing outside looked to be alone as I hopped out to meet him. He was an Asian man, maybe 30 years old and though his accent was a little thick, I didn't have any trouble understanding him.

"These tires, they have no leaks, right?" I assured him that I'd only put about a thousand miles on them and that they were in excellent shape.

He examined them a bit and then stood up and pulled out his wallet, peeling off the exact amount we agreed upon over the phone and handing it to me. He smiled and thanked me, I wished him luck, got in my truck and drove away.

I felt silly about my apprehensions and was just beginning to chide myself for it when my cell phone rang.

"Scott these tires, they have sidewall damage!"

I wheeled around and went back and when I pulled into the space I'd just left, the man was there with a tire store employee and together they were scrutinizing the tires.

"See, there is a bulge on the sidewall, and on this one too," he said. Unbelievably, there on the back sides of the tires were ugly nubs, each about the size of a garbanzo bean.

I stammered and backpedaled, spouting surprise and incredulity and the tire store guy eyed me suspiciously.

I stood listening to the man I'd sold the tires to and felt myself shrink as the tire guy found even more trouble with the tire. "See this marking...it says, 'OR'...that means the tire is out of round and was stamped that way by the original tire seller."

I could see the other tire store guys watching from inside the building and I felt even smaller.

"We can't install these tires on your car, Mister...liability and stuff, you know," he said.

The Asian man looked up at me, and to my surprise, he smiled. "Ah...you know, these things happen."

He turned back to the tire guy and asked if he could sell him some different tires to replace them with.

Now I was feeling like a complete heel. I'd sold this poor guy not just one bad tire, but two.

I watched as they made their way into the store, and I had no choice but to follow them.

Inside, the tire guy rang up an estimate for new tires and the Asian man frowned. "Can you give me a better deal, I drove all the way down from Everett."

At this point, I had to fix the situation, because it was either that, or I knew that as soon as I walked outside to leave, a big hole would open up in the ground and I'd slide all the way to Hades.

"Here..let's even this up," I said, and pulled out the cash the man had given me and started peeling off bills.

He looked at me and said, "No..no..it's ok," but I couldn't even begin to live with myself if I didn't try to make amends.

I insisted until he accepted and before I was done, I had give him nearly half of the money back.

Walking out of the tire store, I was dazed by the way the situation had played out. Even though I did not realize that two of the tires were flawed, I still felt the shame of my original summation that the person I was dealing with might be there to rip me off.

When fate had spun the tables completely around, I was taught something about karma. Instead of going out to deal with other people with trepidation or fear, one should go without hesitation, with good intentions and with an intrepid heart.

Ultimately, you will always get what you deserve.