diff --git a/BaseIndex.py b/BaseIndex.py
index a4485b3..70a2496 100644
--- a/BaseIndex.py
+++ b/BaseIndex.py
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ def get_words(self, docid):
 
     # A subclass may wish to extend or override this.
     def index_doc(self, docid, text):
-        # XXX If docid is already known, do something smart.
+        if self._docwords.has_key(docid):
+            # XXX Do something smarter than this.
+            self.unindex_doc(docid)
         wids = self._lexicon.sourceToWordIds(text)
         wid2weight, docweight = self._get_frequencies(wids)
         for wid, weight in wid2weight.items():
diff --git a/tests/testZCTextIndex.py b/tests/testZCTextIndex.py
index a3afc39..8faaf0d 100644
--- a/tests/testZCTextIndex.py
+++ b/tests/testZCTextIndex.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ def testStopWords(self):
         self.assertEqual(len(self.index.get_words(1)), 1)
 
     def testDocUpdate(self):
-        docid = 1
+        docid = 1   # doesn't change -- we index the same doc repeatedly
         N = len(text)
         stop = get_stopdict()
 
@@ -131,9 +131,6 @@ def testDocUpdate(self):
                 for w in v:
                     nbest, total = self.zc_index.query(w)
                     self.assertEqual(total, 0, "did not expect to find %s" % w)
-            # XXX The next line is necessary because we're not yet reindexing
-            # XXX docs correctly.
-            self.zc_index.unindex_object(docid)
 
 class CosineIndexTests(ZCIndexTestsBase, testIndex.CosineIndexTest):