diff --git a/src/TODO b/src/TODO
index a524254ca5229..5db30e3163d64 100644
--- a/src/TODO
+++ b/src/TODO
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ filestore
   - need an osdmap cache layer?
 
 bugs
-- be lenient about timing out clients if we are laggy ourselves
 - mds prepare_force_open_sessions, then import aborts.. session is still OPENING but no client_session is sent...
 - rm -r failure (on kernel tree)
 - dbench 1, restart mds (may take a few times), dbench will error out.
diff --git a/src/mds/Server.cc b/src/mds/Server.cc
index ff4004a68ef2e..d74bf4b04b421 100644
--- a/src/mds/Server.cc
+++ b/src/mds/Server.cc
@@ -407,6 +407,14 @@ void Server::find_idle_sessions()
   // autoclose
   cutoff = now;
   cutoff -= g_conf.mds_session_autoclose;
+
+  // don't kick clients if we've been laggy
+  if (mds->laggy_until > cutoff) {
+    dout(10) << " laggy_until " << mds->laggy_until << " > cutoff " << cutoff
+	     << ", not kicking any clients to be safe" << dendl;
+    return;
+  }
+
   while (1) {
     Session *session = mds->sessionmap.get_oldest_session(Session::STATE_STALE);
     if (!session) break;