Christmas has come early for a Bangladeshi cleaner who was mocked online for looking at gold chains in a shop window.
Internet trolls ridiculed Nazer al-Islam Abdul Karim after a picture of him looking wistfully into the window of a jewellery shop in Saudi Arabia was posted on Instagram.
However, he has since been showered with gifts – including items from the jewellery shop – after internet users, appalled by the derogatory comments, started a campaign to find him.
So far the 65-year-old has received money, bags of rice and honey, return tickets to his home country as well as two smartphones, an iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy. And the donations continue to pour in.
The campaign began after a picture of Mr Karim was taken without his knowledge and uploaded to Instagram with the caption: “This man deserves to only look at rubbish”.
Outraged Abdullah Al-Qahtani – whose Twitter handle Ensaneyat means humanitarianism in Arabic – set out to find him by tweeting the image and asking for others to help identify him.
As the picture was retweeted and shared online some were able to identify Mr Karim’s location based on the shop reflected in the window. Soon, they were able to track down cleaner himself.
As well as being unaware of his picture being posted online, Mr Karim was oblivious to the search that was also underway. He was shocked and delighted when the gifts started rolling in.
“I was just doing my job as a cleaner in the municipality and found myself in front of the gold shop. I am very happy about the gifts and very thankful,” he told CNN .
Al-Qahtani, 38, said money is still being sent to Karim as well as bags of rice and honey, return tickets to his home country and two smartphones, an iPhone 7 and a Samsung galaxy.
The cleaner was also allowed to choose his own set of gold chains and earrings.
Mr Al-Qahtani posted pictures of the cleaner and his new gifts on Twitter.
He told CNN he was impressed by the efforts to find the man, and the kindness he was shown by strangers.
COURTESY: THE TELEGRAPH
