diff --git a/lib/async.js b/lib/async.js
index 06ede1475..b8c001b8e 100644
--- a/lib/async.js
+++ b/lib/async.js
@@ -1255,14 +1255,13 @@
     async.applyEachSeries = doSeries(_applyEach);
 
     async.forever = function (fn, callback) {
+        var done = only_once(callback || noop);
+        var task = ensureAsync(fn);
         function next(err) {
             if (err) {
-                if (callback) {
-                    return callback(err);
-                }
-                throw err;
+                return done(err);
             }
-            fn(next);
+            task(next);
         }
         next();
     };
diff --git a/test/test-async.js b/test/test-async.js
index 6797afeff..eba90e914 100755
--- a/test/test-async.js
+++ b/test/test-async.js
@@ -80,8 +80,10 @@ function getFunctionsObject(call_order) {
     };
 }
 
-exports['forever'] = function (test) {
-    test.expect(1);
+exports['forever'] = {
+
+'async': function (test) {
+    test.expect(2);
     var counter = 0;
     function addOne(callback) {
         counter++;
@@ -94,8 +96,28 @@ exports['forever'] = function (test) {
     }
     async.forever(addOne, function (err) {
         test.equal(err, 'too big!');
+        test.equal(counter, 50);
         test.done();
     });
+},
+
+'sync': function (test) {
+    test.expect(2);
+    var counter = 0;
+    function addOne(callback) {
+        counter++;
+        if (counter === 50000) {
+            return callback('too big!');
+        }
+        callback();
+    }
+    async.forever(addOne, function (err) {
+        test.equal(err, 'too big!');
+        test.equal(counter, 50000);
+        test.done();
+    });
+}
+
 };
 
 exports['applyEach'] = function (test) {