Mocked online, Bangladeshi cleaner has the last laugh

Dubai: In a heartwarming incident, a poor Bangladeshi man working as a cleaner in Saudi Arabia was gifted a host of freebies from a gold set to smartphones by people who came out in his support after he was mocked online over a photo of him staring at a jewellery shop display.

An Instagram user had mocked the cleaner, who works in Riyadh, by sharing the picture, writing, “this man deserves to only look at rubbish”. The comment prompted an outpouring of support for the cleaner on social media, and Abdullah al Qahtani, the owner of the Twitter account Ensaniyat (humanitarianism), started a campaign to find the man in the photo. Qahtani told Al-Arabiya that he managed to find the cleaner to give him his gifts.

The cleaner was identified as Nuzroul Abdulkareem, and his monthly salary was said to be $187. “More money is being sent to Nuzroul,”  Qahtani said, without specifying how much. In addition to a gold set, bags of rice and honey, Abdulkareem has so far received “two-way tickets to his home country, and two phones — one iPhone 7 and one Samsung Galaxy.”

Saudis on social media  tweeted, vowing to send more gifts to the cleaner, including one user who said a gift of $533 would be given. “I am very thankful,” Abdulkareem said. The picture of him staring at a gold shop display went viral and many Saudi users insisted on buying him a gold set.