Shah Shuja comes across as a whiner and a fop. He greets Burnes wearing a pink gauze tunic and a velvet cap from which hang emeralds and tassels. A fat, sour man, he complains to Burnes about his many misfortunes. When he lost his throne, he fled to the court of the Sikh king Ranjit Singh, lord of Peshawar, seeking refuge. He was hoping to pay for that refuge with the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which he had stolen from the treasury before taking flight. But Ranjit Singh simply took his diamond and put him in a dungeon.
