1 files changed, 10 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/s/commands_public.cpp b/s/commands_public.cpp
index f29205b2326..44c910b136c 100644
--- a/s/commands_public.cpp
+++ b/s/commands_public.cpp
@@ -375,9 +375,13 @@ namespace mongo {
 
                 long long total = 0;
                 map<string,long long> shardCounts;
+                int numTries = 0;
+                bool hadToBreak = false;
 
                 ChunkManagerPtr cm = conf->getChunkManager( fullns );
-                while ( true ) {
+                while ( numTries < 5 ) {
+                    numTries++;
+
                     if ( ! cm ) {
                         // probably unsharded now
                         return run( dbName , cmdObj , errmsg , result , l );
@@ -387,7 +391,7 @@ namespace mongo {
                     cm->getShardsForQuery( shards , filter );
                     assert( shards.size() );
 
-                    bool hadToBreak = false;
+                    hadToBreak = false;
 
                     for (set<Shard>::iterator it=shards.begin(), end=shards.end(); it != end; ++it) {
                         ShardConnection conn(*it, fullns);
@@ -428,6 +432,10 @@ namespace mongo {
                     if ( ! hadToBreak )
                         break;
                 }
+                if (hadToBreak) {
+                    errmsg = "Tried 5 times without success to get count for " + fullns + " from all shards";
+                    return false;
+                }
 
                 total = applySkipLimit( total , cmdObj );
                 result.appendNumber( "n" , total );