The story of an Honest Pakistani

I recently bumped across this story appearing on The Consumerist website, an article tucked away in a section called ‘Above and Beyond‘.

It is after reading this narration one is definitely overwhelmed by the fact, that despite all the negativity and corruption surrounding the Pakistani political leaders, the down-to-earth Pakistani still genuinely cares for his outstanding debts to society. I am sure we all may have been witness to many other proud moments where Muslims & Pakistanis have gone well above and beyond the call of duty, but lets for now celebrate the kind deed of this unnamed Pakistani to have truly done us proud.

The software company I work for put out a version available for download early 2007. It was a success, however for the first two months there was a small problem. As soon as you purchased it, you were able to download it BEFORE your credit card was validated. This led to the company getting burned until it was fixed.

Back in 2007 we had a customer who tried to pay for the download in Pakistan, and then paid for it with a debit card. It was the only card payment he had, and it was rejected. He had no other forms of payment, and we had to write it off as a loss while he got to enjoy using his software for free. Whatever, it was our web engineers’ mistake that caused it.

In October 2008 a letter came in the mail with a check from a customer for the Download version. Obviously this raised some questions as we could not process a download order paid by check. I opened up the file with the name on it, and lo and behold, there was the guy from Pakistan who we had written off the charge for.

I called him up, and it turns out that he just moved to the US and one of the first things he did when he had gotten a checking account was to send a check to us for the full amount of the software that we had written off over a year and a half prior.

Honesty, and memory like that is hard to find these days. I wonder if coming from another country and culture had anything to do with it.


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15 responses to “The story of an Honest Pakistani”

  1. Jaf Avatar

    very inspiring …. does that mean should we ‘all’ send cheque to microsoft for pirated windows we have been using since ever hehehe :}}}

  2. Khalid M Avatar

    It’s great to see that there are some Pakistanis out there that raise the bar for the rest of us!

  3. ReallyVirtual Avatar

    @Jaf another reason to switch to linux

  4. Rockfella Avatar
    Rockfella

    We should also send a cheque to Mr. Bush for sending us the lovely gift of Mr. Zardari from New York

  5. Dr. Farrukh Malik Avatar

    Impressive, I wish I could do it too but it will outlast my pocket….

  6. Unaiza Fatima Avatar
    Unaiza Fatima

    As I mentioned in my last comment, these are the people by virtue of whom the system still runs and the nation still breathes. They act in silence without an expectation for any appreciation.

  7. fahad Avatar

    zara num hoo tu yeh mitti zarkhaiz hai saaki!

  8. farrah k raja Avatar
    farrah k raja

    If we exempt politicians and the rich people of Pakistan,rest are hard working,law abiding and try their best to live with integrity and dignity.

  9. farrah k raja Avatar
    farrah k raja

    It is a good thinking point though!
    WHich civil tradition,integrity,principal or value Mr.Zradari possess apart from BENAZIR married him what qualifies him to be our President?
    Why do we have to put up with him in the name of Democracy?
    Which common value do we share with Shery Rehman,with Mr.Yousaf Raza Gillani and with Zardari

  10. freedom Avatar
    freedom

    Pakistani brains are hard wired otherwise.

  11. Le Mystique Avatar

    There are good and bad people everywhere. We have a lot of things to fix in our society.
    And we as a nation are paying the price for our ill habits.

    It was hilarious to know today about the price of 2 bridal dresses purchased for a a normal middle class girl. The price was in lakhs.

    I wonder how can we dare to spend so lavishly when there are some women selling their infants, others jumping on a rail track along with their off springs, and a rickhshaw driver who puts an AD on vehicle saying ‘Kidney for Sale’.

  12. farrah k raja Avatar
    farrah k raja

    Le Mystique
    Good point ,I never understood why we spend so much on weddings?
    Bano Qudsia wrote a good drama on it which was televised on
    PTV.
    At least one good thing was introduced by Mr.Nawaz Shreif and that was ,one dish on the weddings.
    Our society has changed so much,Show biz have disappeared becasue there are so many show baz now.
    Simplicity and modesty have ran fast from our society and flasy ,bling and over the Top people have made it impossible for people to live a modest life.
    Guchi bags,Channel lipstick and Parada shoes,even living and working in London,I do not see many people wearing this.In London Underground they say every two hours one millionaire is travelling in the Tube.
    Whereas in Pakistan all these brands are like in today out tomorrow.
    Question is where is this money comming from?

  13. Waqas Khan Avatar
    Waqas Khan

    Reply To:
    “Comment by Khalid M on November 21, 2008 @ 11:55 am”

    Khalid Sb,

    There are not just few Pakistani’s but there are huge number of them who are honest.

  14. TheGoriWife Avatar

    That’s really nice – and even more surprising given the culture of software piracy in PK!

  15. call of duty 4 moder Avatar

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