It was not uncommon for the children to be told they were being treated this way because it was their bad karma and they must have hurt a child in a past life. ↗
I do sometimes strongly hope that in a past life, my most recent life before this, I was absolutely horrible, evil, hideous. Because otherwise - well, hell, to even things up next time around, I'm going to have to pay for this one, am I not? ↗