On one of his raids, Stenka captured a beautiful Persian Princess (daughter of Astarian Mahmed-chan) and fell in love with her.

He was so infatuated that he neglected everything else and spent all of his time with her. As time passed and Razin showed no inclination to do anything but dally with his Princess, his men became more and more dissatisfied and finely the grumbling in the ranks broke out into the open. His men told him that he was becoming soft and powerless and that unless he disposed of the Princess there would be a mutiny and he would be deposed as leader of the band.

When he finally realized that his men would indeed leave him unless he gave up the Princess, he threw her overboard to her death in the river.