diff --git a/test/T050-new.sh b/test/T050-new.sh
index cd522364..b9854978 100755
--- a/test/T050-new.sh
+++ b/test/T050-new.sh
@@ -354,4 +354,9 @@ exit status: 75
 EOF
 test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
 
+add_email_corpus broken
+test_begin_subtest "reference loop does not crash"
+test_subtest_known_broken
+test_expect_code 0 "notmuch show --format=json id:mid-loop-12@example.org id:mid-loop-21@example.org > OUTPUT"
+
 test_done