In India, according to Vedic civilization, one is very much afraid of taking loan from others, because he has conviction, “If I do not pay, then in my next life I’ll have to pay many times. So I must liquidate my debt.” That’s a fact. If you take one cent from somebody else without doing something good to him or without exchanging something, then you are debtor, and you have to pay him with interest and compound interest. That is the law of karma.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.13 — 16 June, 1969