Many people have the misunderstanding that Karma is a system

where people who act badly get punished for their wrongdoing in the
future. For example . . .

However Karma is not a cosmic system of justice and retribution.

There is no unseen judge pulling the strings of karma to punish
wrongdoers. Karma is as impersonal as gravity. What goes up does
come down; what you do is what happens to you.
Karma is not the only force that causes things to happen in the world.
If a terrible flood wipes out a community, don't assume karma
somehow brought about a flood or that the people in the community
deserved to be punished for something. Unfortunate events can
happen to anybody, even the most righteous.
However buddhists believe that karma is a strong force that can result
in a generally happy life or a generally miserable one.

Throughout many countries, the word karma is defined as

good or bad luck, depending on a person actions.
Examples of the stereotypical karma is if someone does
something bad and getting punished coincidentally. This
has been an informal definition for a long time and many
people don’t realise it’s real meaning.

Karma, and the idea of karma in the Buddhist religion was

adopted into the Chinese culture as an incentive for
people to be morally good because Confucianism did not
have future consequences for people to practice their
morality or immorality. Karma is literally “the law of action”