LostHighway

About 10 years ago, an Indian / Sikh guy came to the shop I used to work at that time. He wrote something on a piece of paper, folded it up so I couldn't read it, gave it to me and asked me to keep it in my closed left hand. Then he wanted me to tell him a number, the name of a flower, and the name of my girlfriend. He wrote down my answers on another piece of paper and put the piece of paper on a table. Afterwards I was allowed to open the piece of paper that I was still holding in my hand: number, flower and the name of my gf on both papers were the same!

The usual answer from sceptics is, that everybody says "3" and "Rose", and that this guy figured out my gf's name somehow. But I didn't say neither "3" nor "Rose" and only told him the first 3 letters of my gf's name - the same 3 letters he had written on the piece of paper he gave me before I told him!

Any rational / logical ideas how he did it? As far as I know, no one was able yet to proof mind reading under scientific conditions, so there must be another way.