The Source Book On Sikhism

John Lawrence Loses Gem

Koh-i-Noor was brought out from the Toshakhana by Dr. Login who was placed in charge of the minor Maharaja. It was later handed over formally to the Punjab government in the custody of John Lawrence. John Lawrence was very careless. He wrapped it up in numerous folds of cloth, put it in an insignificant little box and thrust it into his waistcoat pocket. He went working as hard as usual and thought no more of the precious jewel. He put his waistcoat aside, quite forgetful of the box and its fabulous content.

About six weeks afterwards a message came from Lord Dalhousie saying that the Queen had ordered that the jewel be transmitted to her. Lawrence was deeply distressed and he profoundly regretted his carelessness. He soon found an opportunity to slip away to his private room and asked his bearer if he knew anything about the small box which was lying in his waistcoat. The bearer went to a broken tin box and produced the little box from it. ‘Open it’, said John Lawrence, ‘and see what is inside’. The bearer unfolded it but seemed unconscious of the treasure which he had in his keeping. ‘There is nothing here Sahib’, he said, ‘but a bit of glass’. Never before, whether flashing in the diadem of Turk and Mughal or in the uplifted sword of a Persian, Afghan or the Sikh conqueror, did the gem run a greater risk of being lost forever, than when it lay forgotten in the waistcoat pocket of John Lawrence or in the broken tin box of his aged bearer. Its journey from Lahore to Bombay was full of perils and is described by Col. Etherton in an article ‘Diamond that Dazzled the World’. In those days the road from Lahore to Bombay swarmed with robbers, dacoits and thugs. The thugs were the gangsters of their day and their instrument of destruction was a silk handkerchief with which, by a dexterous movement, they strangled their victims. Strangling was a religious cult with them and considered to be an honourable profession.