diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index a9a232e93b..492bb74133 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Dragos Manolescu (dragosm@hp.com)
 Juan J. Martinez (juan@memset.com)
 Donagh McCabe (donagh.mccabe@hp.com)
 Ewan Mellor (ewan.mellor@citrix.com)
+Samuel Merritt (spam@andcheese.org)
 Stephen Milton (milton@isomedia.com)
 Russ Nelson (russ@crynwr.com)
 Maru Newby (mnewby@internap.com)
diff --git a/swift/common/ring/builder.py b/swift/common/ring/builder.py
index 6dda10ef99..96eccd5f75 100644
--- a/swift/common/ring/builder.py
+++ b/swift/common/ring/builder.py
@@ -502,31 +502,35 @@ class RingBuilder(object):
                    key=lambda x: x['sort_key'])
         for part in reassign_parts:
             other_zones = array('H')
-            replace = None
+            replace = []
             for replica in xrange(self.replicas):
                 if self._replica2part2dev[replica][part] == 0xffff:
-                    replace = replica
+                    replace.append(replica)
                 else:
                     other_zones.append(self.devs[
                         self._replica2part2dev[replica][part]]['zone'])
-            index = len(available_devs) - 1
-            while available_devs[index]['zone'] in other_zones:
-                index -= 1
-            dev = available_devs.pop(index)
-            self._replica2part2dev[replace][part] = dev['id']
-            dev['parts_wanted'] -= 1
-            dev['parts'] += 1
-            dev['sort_key'] = '%08x.%04x' % (self.parts + dev['parts_wanted'],
-                                             randint(0, 0xffff))
-            index = 0
-            end = len(available_devs)
-            while index < end:
-                mid = (index + end) // 2
-                if dev['sort_key'] < available_devs[mid]['sort_key']:
-                    end = mid
-                else:
-                    index = mid + 1
-            available_devs.insert(index, dev)
+
+            for replica in replace:
+                index = len(available_devs) - 1
+                while available_devs[index]['zone'] in other_zones:
+                    index -= 1
+                dev = available_devs.pop(index)
+                other_zones.append(dev['zone'])
+                self._replica2part2dev[replica][part] = dev['id']
+                dev['parts_wanted'] -= 1
+                dev['parts'] += 1
+                dev['sort_key'] = \
+                    '%08x.%04x' % (self.parts + dev['parts_wanted'],
+                                   randint(0, 0xffff))
+                index = 0
+                end = len(available_devs)
+                while index < end:
+                    mid = (index + end) // 2
+                    if dev['sort_key'] < available_devs[mid]['sort_key']:
+                        end = mid
+                    else:
+                        index = mid + 1
+                available_devs.insert(index, dev)
         for dev in self.devs:
             if dev is not None:
                 del dev['sort_key']
diff --git a/test/unit/common/ring/test_builder.py b/test/unit/common/ring/test_builder.py
index 6826d77e53..0611fc6c7b 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/ring/test_builder.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/ring/test_builder.py
@@ -126,6 +126,36 @@ class TestRingBuilder(unittest.TestCase):
                 counts[dev_id] = counts.get(dev_id, 0) + 1
         self.assertEquals(counts, {0: 256, 2: 256, 3: 256})
 
+    def test_remove_a_lot(self):
+        rb = ring.RingBuilder(3, 3, 1)
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 0, 'device': 'd0', 'ip': '10.0.0.1',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 1})
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 1, 'device': 'd1', 'ip': '10.0.0.2',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 2})
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 2, 'device': 'd2', 'ip': '10.0.0.3',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 3})
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 3, 'device': 'd3', 'ip': '10.0.0.1',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 1})
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 4, 'device': 'd4', 'ip': '10.0.0.2',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 2})
+        rb.add_dev({'id': 5, 'device': 'd5', 'ip': '10.0.0.3',
+                    'port': 6002, 'weight': 1000.0, 'zone': 3})
+        rb.rebalance()
+        rb.validate()
+
+        # this has to put more than 1/3 of the partitions in the
+        # cluster on removed devices in order to ensure that at least
+        # one partition has multiple replicas that need to move.
+        #
+        # (for an N-replica ring, it's more than 1/N of the
+        # partitions, of course)
+        rb.remove_dev(3)
+        rb.remove_dev(4)
+        rb.remove_dev(5)
+
+        rb.rebalance()
+        rb.validate()
+
     def test_shuffled_gather(self):
         if self._shuffled_gather_helper() and \
             self._shuffled_gather_helper():