The world’s number one Rolls Royce cars were being used for transportation of Alwar city’s waste garbage. Back in 1920, the Maharaja Jai Singh of Alwar visited London on a vacation was walking in his casual dress in Bond Street. The king came across the Rolls Royce showroom and went inside to inquire about the price and specifications of a high-end model, Rolls-Royce car.

Since he was dressed very casually and didn’t have his escorts around, the British showroom salesman humiliated the King by judging on his appearance. Considering the king as just another poor Indian Citizen, the salesman mocked at him and said he would not be able to afford it. He further ill-treated the King Jai Singh and ignored his requests for a test drive and almost showed him the way out without any respect.

Extremely furious with the treatment he was met with, he decided to teach Rolls Royce a lesson of a lifetime. As soon as he returned to his Hotel room, he asked his servants to call the showroom that the Maharaja of Alwar city was interested in purchasing a few cars.

His demand then, of course, was met with a red carpet welcome and the all the salesmen in the showroom were lined up to honor the king’s visit. After a couple of hours, the king visited the showroom with his royal manner and appearance.

The Maharaja then ordered a fleet of 6 different Rolls Royce cars which were present at that time and he paid in full including the delivery costs to be shipped to his palace in India. Along with the cars, he requested the same salesman who ignored him to accompany him to India. After all six Rolls Royce cars reached India, then came the blow that went down in the history of Rolls-Royce.

The infuriated Maharaja cut open their roofs and ordered the Municipality to use all these six super-expensive cars for the purpose of transporting and collecting the garbage in the city as garbage trucks right in front of the salesman. The cars then were used to collect garbage in Alwar for one long month.

The news spread all over the world and the reputation of world number one car manufacturer Rolls-Royce Company became a laughing stock. When one used to pride about owning a Rolls Royce car, people started humiliating ” Oh, the same car used in India for garbage collection?”. This was a massive insult for the Rolls Royce and revenue was dropping rapidly.

As soon as the car company received news of their brand being humiliated this way, the salesman was sacked & the company sent a telegram to the Indian Maharaja Jai Singh apologizing for their behavior whilst he visited the showroom in London, requesting him to return those garbage cars.  Not only this,  they also offered six new Rolls Royce cars to the Maharaja free of cost. The king accepted their apologies thinking that Rolls-Royce company had learned a lesson and stopped using the cars for garbage collection.

This story of Indian King Jai Singh, Maharaja of Alwar (Rajasthan) is one of the bizarre stories you will come across in the Indian history.