On Wednesday, actor Parineeti Chopra replied to a tweet which talked about a spirited Mumbai shoe shining boy. Chopra, impressed by the boy’s perseverance, offered to help him get a job of his choice.
Hi @agentgreenglass . Such a great gesture! I would like to help him and if he would like, find him a great job of his choice. Could you please DM me? ? https://t.co/bQS1va8yfN
— Parineeti Chopra (@ParineetiChopra) July 23, 2019
It started with a tweet on Tuesday, where twitter user @agentgreenglass put up a picture of a young boy, about 16-17 years of age.
He spoke English with an accent. And kept asking if he could clean my shoes, bcoz he didn’t want to eat for free. I insisted my sneakers were clean enough & instead he cld just talk to me. Long story short: he’s from Rajasthan. His dad used to sell maps etc to tourists.
— agentgreenglass (@agentgreenglass) July 23, 2019
She says how she met the boy outside McDonalds in Linking Road, Mumbai and he offered to polish her shoes. He said he was hungry as no one had gotten their shoes polished all day. She then fed him a roll and they got talking. She says that the boy spoke English, with an accent, which he picked up when his father sold maps to tourists in Rajasthan.
Some folks who he stopped, like me, were also interested in how well he spoke, and got him admitted to school two weeks back. Now here’s the thing. In the evenings he wants to polish shoes and make money. For that he needs a box. It costs 1,800 bucks. I’m going to get the box.
— agentgreenglass (@agentgreenglass) July 23, 2019
The Twitter user added how some people got him admitted to a school, but he was still polishing shoes to earn money. He wanted to get a shoe polish box where he could put all the things he’d need for polishing shoes instead of the bag he currently carries them in. The Twitter user added how she was going to buy him the shoe polish box.
So if you have an office in #Bandra or know anyone who does, please do reach out if you can hire this young boy. He speaks very well and maybe we can give him a chance to make something off his life. Thank you.
— agentgreenglass (@agentgreenglass) July 23, 2019
She then appealed to Twitter users to help him find a stable job instead so that he doesn’t have to polish shoes.
The story of the spirited boy touched the hearts of Twitter users where many came forward to help him with a job and education. Including actress Parineeti Chopra.
However, there’s a catch.
The ‘spirited Mumbai boy’ is actually a conman who gets gullible people to buy him a shoe box for 1800 rupees from a nearby store and then after the person is out of sight, he sells the box back to the shopkeeper who pays returns him about 50% of the money.
Watch this video from May this year when the same boy is trying to scam a few foreigners with same modus operandi.
Apparently, the scam is as old as time.
