Barcelona taxi driver Asad Shoaib Abbasi, 44, had worked all night on New Year's Day and was ready to go home in the early hours of January 2nd when two young men stopped him in the street, newspaper La Vanguardia reported.

At first everything seemed fine, he told the newspaper, and he started to drive the men to their destination. But as they approached the location and Shoaib told them the fare, one of the men hit him in the head with the handle of a knife. 

To try to protect himself, the father of four jumped out of the taxi, but the second man was already outside and started to stab him in the side.

Out of desperation, he told them where he kept an envelope of money, which he had intended to use to visit his sick mother in Pakistan.

The attackers fled after they saw a passerby, but Shoaib decided to pursue them in his vehicle, soon to be joined by a group of fellow taxi drivers who heard what happened on the company radio. One of the men was caught while the other managed to get away.

After reading about what happened to Shoaib, two different men decided to find him and donate money towards his trip to see his mother, La Vanguardia reported on Wednesday.

The first man, David, met Shoaib at a mall where he gave him the donation in person. The second man, Héctor, met him for coffee. 

The newspaper reported that the taxi driver was able to buy plane tickets with the money and his flight was set to leave on Tuesday.