Re-submitted (because there’s an error in the first submission):

Dear Kiersten:

A few comments before I answer your question best I can:

1) I looked up the costs of a bag of green tea and although many cost under $10, some as low as a few dollars, there are expensive bags of tea such as the Jasmine Pearls Full-Leaf Green Tea bag which steeps 200 cups and costs $134.50. So, I understand that a bag of green tea can be an expensive item.

2) It is sad that your mother is generous with you as far as material gifts go (“packed up all the gifts she had given me“), but will not give you the gift of a calm, respectful mother who promotes her daughter’s mental health (“She is very emotionally abusive towards me… I blocked her because she was taking a toll on my mental health“).

And now, my answer: because you believe in karma (“I don’t want to be karmically responsible for keeping something that is not mine“), and because you promised to return it (“I apologized to her and promised to return it”), you better return it to her.

Because you say that you don’t have the money to mail it, that you don’t have anyone to take it and drop it off at your mother’s. and you don’t want to drop it off yourself because you are afraid that she will verbally abuse you, I suggest that you put the bag of tea in a box or in a plastic bag, go to your mother’s place, quickly put the bag outside her door, and immediately walk away and back to the street. Once you are in a safe distance from her home, text her with the message that the bag of tea is right outside her door. If you can’t text her, call her and hang up right after delivering the message.

Then go back to your home, karma cleared and promise fulfilled.

anita