During a visit to Regency London, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan ordered a suit for ten shillings. The tailor, however, demanded twice the agreed fee, and took his demand to court; but he never told Abu Taleb, who was duly fined for failing to answer a summons. To his disgust, his lawyer advised him to pay up and countersue.

Abu Taleb did not take his lawyer’s advice. He found many native Englishmen had suffered the same injustice, and like them settled out of court, beating the tailor (and other fraudulent tradesmen) down to an acceptable compromise. It revolted him that British justice should be so corrupt, and that upright members of the legal profession could do nothing about it.

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