diff --git a/src/libutil/ustring.cpp b/src/libutil/ustring.cpp
index 3da39ccf65..043ce43dfb 100644
--- a/src/libutil/ustring.cpp
+++ b/src/libutil/ustring.cpp
@@ -522,7 +522,7 @@ ustring::make_unique(string_view strref)
     size_t bin = rm.lock_bin(hash);
 
     hash_t orighash     = hash;
-    size_t binmask      = orighash & (~rm.nobin_mask());
+    size_t binbits      = orighash & (~rm.nobin_mask());
     size_t num_rehashes = 0;
 
     while (1) {
@@ -546,9 +546,23 @@ ustring::make_unique(string_view strref)
             break;
         }
         // Rehash, but keep the bin bits identical so we always rehash into
-        // the same (locked) bin.
-        hash = (hash & binmask)
-               | (farmhash::Fingerprint(hash) & rm.nobin_mask());
+        // the same (locked) bin. But watch out for rehashing that returns the
+        // identical non-bin part as before -- that will enter an infinite
+        // loop if we're not careful!
+        hash_t old_nonbin_bits = hash & rm.nobin_mask();
+        hash_t new_nonbin_bits = farmhash::Fingerprint(hash) & rm.nobin_mask();
+        if (OIIO_UNLIKELY(old_nonbin_bits == new_nonbin_bits)) {
+            new_nonbin_bits = (new_nonbin_bits + 7) & rm.nobin_mask();
+#    ifndef NDEBUG
+            std::string s = Strutil::escape_chars(strref);
+            print(stderr, "IDEMPOTENT RE-HASH! |{}|\n", s);
+            for (auto c : s)
+                print(stderr, c > 0 ? "{:c}" : "\\{:03o}",
+                      static_cast<unsigned char>(c));
+            print(stderr, "\n");
+#    endif
+        }
+        hash = binbits | new_nonbin_bits;
         ++num_rehashes;
         // Strutil::print("COLLISION \"{}\" {:08x} vs \"{}\"\n",
         //                strref, orighash, rev->second);
@@ -556,6 +570,7 @@ ustring::make_unique(string_view strref)
             std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(collision_mutex);
             all_hash_collisions.emplace_back(rev->second, rev->first);
         }
+        OIIO_ASSERT(num_rehashes < 100000);  // Something is very wrong
     }
     rm.unlock_bin(bin);
 
diff --git a/src/libutil/ustring_test.cpp b/src/libutil/ustring_test.cpp
index 3b4ff692e4..61b0aad167 100644
--- a/src/libutil/ustring_test.cpp
+++ b/src/libutil/ustring_test.cpp
@@ -167,6 +167,14 @@ test_ustring()
     OIIO_CHECK_EQUAL(whichtype, ustring("foo"));
     OIIO_CHECK_ASSERT((std::is_same<decltype(whichtype), ustring>::value));
     OIIO_CHECK_ASSERT(!(std::is_same<decltype(whichtype), const char*>::value));
+
+    // Regression test: This specific string hashes to 0! This once caused a
+    // lot of trouble, because it couldn't rehash properly (every rehash also
+    // ended up at 0). When broken, this made an infinite loop inside
+    // ustring::make_unique().
+    const char* hash0
+        = "\t\n\n\t\301\350`O\217c85?\202\200\251r|}\304\351\2517\337K'\217C\240";
+    OIIO_CHECK_EQUAL(ustring(hash0).hash(), 13226272983328805811ULL);
 }