Jingming Zhang, a PhD. student in Chemistry at the Rutgers University has filed a police complaint and printed flyers for a laptop stolen last week, urging the thief to return his research material stored in the device.

Zhang, 28, doesn't mind if the thief keeps the laptop but is requesting him to return his research material accumulated over a period of five years.

In addition, he is even ready to offer the thief up to $1,000 for returning his study material, which he says is important as he requires it to defend his graduate project.

Zhang confessed that he did not save a back up of those files.

"A lot of people are asking me why I didn't back up my data," Jim said. "I think the reason is that I am pretty busy recently and this kind of thing never happened to me before."

The flyers have a heading in red that reads - 'FOR MY LOST LAPTOP.' The body of the flyer describes his laptop model (Lenovo Thinkpad T420S), and from where it was stolen (Room 203, the Wright Rieman Laboratories, Rutgers' Busch Campus on April 19).

Zhang has also given his laptop's password, personal e-mail address, and phone number.

"We certainly understand the stress a Ph.D. is under, losing that type of work at such a critical juncture. However, posting a flier like that can be risky." Rutgers Police Lt. Paul Fischer said. "He might be inviting more trouble by going the extra mile but of course it's understandable. The plight that the individual finds himself in."

Fischer feels that Zhang can fall into a trap if an individual sends him a false file in order to get the money.

Fischer has warned students not to leave their personal belongings unattended, even if the place is familiar and safe to them.

As expected the image of the flyers has gone viral on the social media with thousands sharing it on the Facebook and Reddit.

Since Zhang has not been able to find his laptop till now, he has begun his project anew. He now saves his work on two external hard drives and on the online storage service called DropBox

Zhang hopes that his incident will now force people to save a back up of their files at another location.