---
type: Video
title: "Honest Pakistani Barber Gets a Reward 🇵🇰"
description: A three-stage street shave in an Islamabad market for 200 rupees, a 3,000-rupee tip — and the shop owner taking a third of it out of the barber's hand in front of Harry.
tags: [pakistan, islamabad, barbers, tipping, wages, markets]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhF1qij0ggk
video_id: EhF1qij0ggk
upload_date: 2021-12-31
duration: 974
---

# Honest Pakistani Barber Gets a Reward 🇵🇰

Harry wants a wet shave before heading north, can't find a street barber, and
asks a sunglasses seller — who abandons his stall, walks him through a food
market and up an alley to a first-floor shop, and won't take anything for it.

**The shave is 200 rupees, about a dollar**, and runs three passes: a razor,
then a second razor pass for what the first missed, then an electric razor, with
cream, aftershave and a final wash between them. The barber puts his own tally at
about 15,000 shaves. Harry's reason for preferring a wet shave is practical — it
lasts roughly twice as long as the electric razor he carries.

**He tips 3,000 rupees, around $17, and then watches what happens to it.** The
shop is not the barber's, and the owner takes 1,000 out of his hand there and
then. Harry doesn't object — it is the man's shop — and notes that the barber
still keeps 2,000, which he guesses is about double a day's earnings. See
[reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md).

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; amounts the transcript
leaves ambiguous are marked unverified.*

## Key moments

- [00:46] A sunglasses seller leaves his own stall to guide them to a barber
  through a crowded food market, and refuses payment.
- [02:18] **150 quoted, 200 paid** for the shave.
- [03:20] The barber is from [Karachi](/places/karachi.md) and moved to
  Islamabad for work. Asked which city is better, he picks Karachi; asked why
  Islamabad is nicer, he says it's cleaner, and then says the people are good in
  both.
- [06:11] About **15,000 shaves** by his own count.
- [11:02] **Three stages**, which Harry has never had before: razor, a second
  razor pass for the hairs the first missed, then an electric razor for the rest.
- [13:26] Why he does this rather than shaving himself: a wet shave lasts about
  twice as long as his electric razor.
- [14:30] **3,000 rupees given on a 200-rupee shave** — and the shop owner
  takes 1,000 of it in front of him. Harry's reading: fair enough, it's his
  shop, and the barber goes home with double a day's pay.
- [15:31] Three weeks into Pakistan, and his summary is the one he keeps
  reaching for: a crazy place with the kindest people he has met.

## Extracted pages

- [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md)
- [Karachi](/places/karachi.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md)