This is punishment linked with retribution.
When I travelled to Queensland as a 19 year old with a mate, we stopped off one day at a hostel near the Brisbane CBD. Come evening, and I was feeling relatively bored, and hence decided to go for a walk around the nearby surrounds. I didn't know quite what I'd see, but I just needed to get out of the hostel for a little while.
I had been walking for only a couple of minutes when I spied a mini shopping complex, which had a convenience store still open. I decided it would give me something to do and see, so I crossed the street and had a look. After buying a nougat bar, I continued walking, but after about 20 minutes, decided I would walk back to the hostel. As I crossed the road, I looked behind me to see a dark figure walking behind me. As I progressed closer to the hostel, the dark figure continued to follow me. I was probably about two blocks away from the hostel now, and decided to quicken my pace, without appearing too frightened. I looked over my shoulder as the hostel came into view, and crossed the road, noticing the dark figure still on my tail. As I approached the entrance to the hostel, I looked behind me one last time, and saw the figure jump into a nearby bush next to somebody's residence. I quickly hurried into the hostel, hoping the figure hadn't seen me enter, and thus know where I was staying. A few minutes later I saw my mate, and told him what had happened. He tried to find a reasonable explanation for me as to whom it could have been, saying it maybe was somebody I had accidentally brushed against while walking down the street earlier that day.
I took some time getting to sleep that night, and woke up once during the night, with the thoughts of the stranger still playing on my mind. I even had a pair of scissors positioned near my pillow for good measure.
Later next day, my mate confessed to me that it had in fact been him, doing it just to alleviate his own boredom at sitting around the hostel. I was somewhat irritated as to why he had done this, but any frustration I felt soon vanished when he told me that when had jumped into the bush near the hostel, it had in fact been a prickle bush, and he had to stifle yelling out in pain so I wouldn't recognise his voice.