UPI ’Miracle’ helps wife recover lost phone, husband shares heartwarming story

UPI ’Miracle’ helps wife recover lost phone, husband shares heartwarming story

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sep 23, 2025: Launched less than a decade ago, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) remains the cornerstone of India’s digital payment ecosystem, contributing to 80 per cent of the retail payments across the country. Now, a viral Reddit post has highlighted how UPI’s utility extends beyond transactions, with a husband recounting how the technology and a kind auto-rickshaw driver helped his wife recover her lost phone.

In a viral Reddit post titled, "UPI helped my wife in getting her phone back", the husband called the incident a ’miracle’ after the wife left her phone in the battery rickshaw they had boarded earlier.

"After sometime my wife figured out that her phone was missing. This phone of hers didn’t had a SIM installed yet so I couldnt even call on that number. At first we thought someone might have stolen it, but later also realised that she might have dropped the phone on the rickshaw," the user wrote in the r/UPI subreddit.

Having paid for the ride via UPI after scanning the QR code, the man tried checking the payment details, but could only find the UPI ID and not the driver’s contact details. "We finally came to terms with the fact that her phone was gone," he said.

However, as the couple was heading home, the man received an SMS stating that one rupee had been credited to his bank account.

"Guess what? It was the same autorickshaw guy who was trying to contact me. He even left a message, "plz call (his contact number)" with the payment - I couldn’t believe my eyes. I immediately called him and he was waiting for my call."

The driver told the couple to stay where they were and drove to them to hand over the mobile phone. After receiving the phone, the man gave the driver a cash reward for his honesty.

"It was "UPI" that brought my wife’s phone back or else there was no way he could have communicated with me, if I had paid him in cash and not UPI."

See the viral post here:

UPI helped my wife in getting her phone back
byu/nabeel487487 inUPI

’Hero of the story...’

As the post went viral, garnering nearly 2,000 upvotes, a section of social media users shared similar experiences with UPI, while others lauded the auto driver for coming through.

"A friend accidentally left them in a cab. Since we had paid the driver via Google Pay, we messaged him. He responded, confirmed he’d found the keys, and returned them the next time he was nearby," said one user while another added: "That honest auto rickshaw driver is the hero of the story, even more than UPI."

A third comment: Lucky you. Very rare such things happen. And always click and post a picture of such honest people, they deserve to be awarded and appreciated and celebrated, which can inspire other people to do so."

The ease of use, combined with a growing network of participating banks and fintech platforms, has made UPI the preferred mode of real-time payments for millions of users.