diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index 824ce42e494e0..8eb1604a941cd 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -362,44 +362,50 @@ def takeSample(self, withReplacement, num, seed=None):
         Return a fixed-size sampled subset of this RDD (currently requires
         numpy).
 
-        >>> sc.parallelize(range(0, 10)).takeSample(True, 10, 1) #doctest: +SKIP
-        [4, 2, 1, 8, 2, 7, 0, 4, 1, 4]
+        >>> rdd = sc.parallelize(range(0, 10))
+        >>> len(rdd.takeSample(True, 20, 1))
+        20
+        >>> len(rdd.takeSample(False, 5, 2))
+        5
+        >>> len(rdd.takeSample(False, 15, 3))
+        10
         """
 
-        numStDev = 10.0
-        initialCount = self.count()
-
         if num < 0:
-            raise ValueError
+            raise ValueError("Sample size cannot be negative.")
+        elif num == 0:
+            return []
 
-        if initialCount == 0 or num == 0:
-            return list()
+        initialCount = self.count()
+        if initialCount == 0:
+            return []
 
         rand = Random(seed)
-        if (not withReplacement) and num > initialCount:
+
+        if (not withReplacement) and num >= initialCount:
             # shuffle current RDD and return
             samples = self.collect()
-            fraction = float(num) / initialCount
-            num = initialCount
-        else:
-            maxSampleSize = sys.maxint  - int(numStDev * sqrt(sys.maxint))
-            if num > maxSampleSize:
-                raise ValueError
-
-            fraction = self._computeFractionForSampleSize(num, initialCount, withReplacement)
+            rand.shuffle(samples)
+            return samples
 
+        numStDev = 10.0
+        maxSampleSize = sys.maxint - int(numStDev * sqrt(sys.maxint))
+        if num > maxSampleSize:
+            raise ValueError("Sample size cannot be greater than %d." % maxSampleSize)
+
+        fraction = RDD._computeFractionForSampleSize(num, initialCount, withReplacement)
+        samples = self.sample(withReplacement, fraction, seed).collect()
+
+        # If the first sample didn't turn out large enough, keep trying to take samples;
+        # this shouldn't happen often because we use a big multiplier for their initial size.
+        # See: scala/spark/RDD.scala
+        while len(samples) < num:
+            # TODO: add log warning for when more than one iteration was run
+            seed = rand.randint(0, sys.maxint)
             samples = self.sample(withReplacement, fraction, seed).collect()
 
-            # If the first sample didn't turn out large enough, keep trying to take samples;
-            # this shouldn't happen often because we use a big multiplier for their initial size.
-            # See: scala/spark/RDD.scala
-            while len(samples) < num:
-                #TODO add log warning for when more than one iteration was run
-                seed = rand.randint(0, sys.maxint)
-                samples = self.sample(withReplacement, fraction, seed).collect()
+        rand.shuffle(samples)
 
-        sampler = RDDSampler(withReplacement, fraction, rand.randint(0, sys.maxint))
-        sampler.shuffle(samples)
         return samples[0:num]
 
     @staticmethod