diff --git a/pandas/core/indexing.py b/pandas/core/indexing.py
index d0410aa06f5b8..8680e776f8667 100644
--- a/pandas/core/indexing.py
+++ b/pandas/core/indexing.py
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ def _getitem_lowerdim(self, tup):
                 # slices are unhashable
                 pass
             except Exception, e1:
-                if isinstance(tup[0], slice):
+                if isinstance(tup[0], (slice, Index)):
                     raise IndexingError
                 try:
                     loc = ax0.get_loc(tup[0])
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_multilevel.py b/pandas/tests/test_multilevel.py
index f3c07a4befbea..53b3c2ade536e 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_multilevel.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_multilevel.py
@@ -314,6 +314,16 @@ def test_getitem_setitem_tuple_plus_columns(self):
         expected = df.ix[2000, 1, 6][['A', 'B', 'C']]
         assert_series_equal(result, expected)
 
+    def test_getitem_multilevel_index_tuple_unsorted(self):
+        index_columns = list("abc")
+        df = DataFrame([[0, 1, 0, "x"], [0, 0, 1, "y"]] ,
+                       columns=index_columns + ["data"])
+        df = df.set_index(index_columns)
+        query_index = df.index[:1]
+        rs = df.ix[query_index, "data"]
+        xp = Series(['x'], index=MultiIndex.from_tuples([(0, 1, 0)]))
+        assert_series_equal(rs, xp)
+
     def test_xs(self):
         xs = self.frame.xs(('bar', 'two'))
         xs2 = self.frame.ix[('bar', 'two')]