Pakistani wins hearts after Bollywood style chase for wallet owner

LONDON: A chartered accountant and educationist from Lahore has won hearts on social media with a moving account of how he managed to track down an Indian who lost his wallet on a busy London street.

Thousands of users from India and Pakistan have showered praise on Ghazi Taimoor for his Bollywood style hunt for “Rahul” across the London streets - successfully finding him at his workplace and returning his wallet carrying bank cards and important documents.

Speaking to this correspondent, Ghazi Taimoor said he was overwhelmed by the emotions and the positivity his act had created across the two nations. Ghazi Taimoor is the Head of Professional Education at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) School of Education. The Harvard Universitygraduate spends every summer in London where he used to work as a Chartered Accountant (CA) at KPMG and spends the rest of the year in Lahore at LUMS University.

Ghazi Taimoor came to the public attention after he shared a thread explaining how he managed to track down the owner of the wallet after going through his lost wallet that there was no clue and no contact information in his wallet, had no social media accounts or any other hint through which the Pakistani professional could reach the real owner of the wallet.

“Guys! Just found this wallet on Shoreditch High Street,” Ghazi Taimoor took to twitter, holding up a picture of the wallet. “Name on the bank card suggests the wallet belongs to a Rahul R**. Time to HUNT RAHUL DOWN,” Ghazi Taimoor resolved.

In the following tweets, Ghazi explained how he finally managed to track Rahul down after having no luck finding him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

“A Google image search suggests all Rahul R*** live in Gujrat, India. Don’t think it’s them. Need suggestions!” He wrote but didn’t disclose the account details or name of the wallet owner to protect his identity.

After failing to find Rahul on the main social platforms, he turned to LinkedIn and found three “Rahuls” of the same name - with only one Rahul working in London. “LinkedIn says Rahul works for a UK Food and Beverage company. Has to be him!” Ghazi wrote.

The next obstacle was that Rahul’s company did not list its address on Google. Ghazi searched the company on the Companies House and tracked the address of the company from its annual accounts filed to the registrar of the companies.

He found that the company was based in London’s Shoreditch area and after two hours Ghazi was at the reception desk of the company. Ghazi found “Rahul” at the site who was shocked that he had lost his wallet and that someone had turned up with his wallet.

Rahul, who works as a Finance Manager at the company, was visibly shocked after receiving his wallet. “He’s in shock. Tears in his eyes,” wrote Mr Ghazi, sharing a picture of the wallet owner smiling from ear to ear after receiving his bank cards.

Thousands of twitter users from India and Pakistan joined forces to praise Ghazi Taimoor for his act of kindness and humanity. Sharing the experience, Ghazi Taimoor told The News and Geo that his first thought at finding the wallet was to realize that someone will face a huge amount of trouble by reporting his lost bank card details to the banks and the police and he could lose money if his cards ended up with criminal gangs.

He said: “I decided to give it a try and find him using his bank card name. I had no other clue and no way to reach him. I then took to Twitter and what a journey it has been.” Ghazi Taimoor studied and worked in London for nine years before going to Harvard for graduation and from there he returned to Pakistan to become an academic. His family lives in Lahore.

One day Ghazi Taimoor wants to become the Education Minister of Pakistan to change the education system of the developing country. He said: “My vision is to become the Education Minister of Pakistan. I believe we need to embed a culture of critical thinking, ethical values and empathy in our education system, which is why I studied Education Policy from Harvard and now intend to work in education policy and teacher training. Lahore and London are home for me, but Lahore is where my heart is.”