Pakistani man wins hearts on social media after Bollywood-style chase for wallet owner

LONDON: A chartered accountant and educationist from Lahore has won hearts on social media with a moving account of how he managed to track down an Indian, who lost his wallet on a busy street in London.

Thousands of users from India and Pakistan showered praise on Ghazi Taimoor for his Bollywood-style hunt for 'Rahul' across the streets of London - successfully finding him at his workplace and returning his wallet with his bank cards and important documents.

Speaking to this correspondent, Taimoor said he was overwhelmed by the emotions and the positivity his act had spread across the two nations.

Taimoor is the Head of Professional Education at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) School of Education. The Harvard University graduate spends every summer in London, where he used to work as a chartered accountant (CA) at the KPMG firm and spends the rest of the year in Lahore at LUMS University.

Taimoor went viral on social media after he posted a thread on Twitter, explaining how he managed to track down the owner of the wallet after going through it, adding that that there was no clue and no contact information in the wallet he had found. 

He also said that there was no information pertaining to any social media accounts or any other hint through which the Pakistani could track the real owner of the wallet.

"Guys! Just found this wallet on Shoreditch High Street," Taimoor had tweeted, holding up a picture of the wallet. 

"Name on the bank card suggests the wallet belongs to a Rahul R**. Time to HUNT RAHUL DOWN," Taimoor resolved.

In the following tweets, Ghazi explained how he finally managed to track Rahul down after having no luck finding him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

"A Google image search suggest all Rahul R*** live in Gujrat, India. Don't think it's them. Need suggestions!" he wrote but did not disclose the account details or name of the wallet owner to protect his identity.

After failing to find Rahul on prominent social media platforms, he turned to LinkedIn and found three 'Rahuls' of the same name - with only one Rahul working in London. 

"LinkedIn says Rahul works for a UK Food and Beverage company. Has to be him!" Ghazi wrote.

The next obstacle was that Rahul’s company did not list its address on Google. Ghazi searched for the company on Companies House - the UK's registrar of companies - and tracked its address from its annual accounts filed to the registrar of the companies.

He found that the company was based in London’s Shoreditch area and after two hours, Ghazi arrived at its reception desk.

Ghazi found Rahul at the company, who was shocked that he had lost his wallet and that someone had turned up with it. 

Rahul, who works as a finance manager at the company, was visibly shocked after receiving his wallet. 

"He's in shock. Tears in his eyes," wrote Ghazi, sharing a picture of the wallet owner smiling from ear to ear after receiving his lost possession.

Thousands of Twitter users from India and Pakistan joined forces to praise Taimoor for his act of kindness.

Sharing the experience, Taimoor told The News and Geo.tv that his first thought at finding the wallet was to realize that someone will face a huge amount of trouble by reporting his lost bank cards details to the banks and the police and he could lose money if his cards ended up with criminal gangs.

He said: “I decided to give it a try and find him using his name on the bank card. I had no other clue and no way to reach him. I then took to Twitter and what a journey it has been.”

Taimoor studied and worked in London for nine years before going to Harvard for his graduation and from there, he returned to Pakistan to become an academic. His family lives in Lahore.

Taimoor aspires to become the education minister of Pakistan as he wants to change the education system of the country.

He said: “My vision is to become the education minister of Pakistan. I believe we need to embed a culture of critical thinking, ethical values and empathy in our education system, which is why I studied education policy from Harvard and now intend to work in education policy and teacher training. Lahore and London are home for me, but Lahore is where my heart is," he concluded.