diff --git a/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c b/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
index 8891cd88a3f4..a0e2e7acdc75 100644
--- a/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
+++ b/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ reiserfs_xattr_set_handle(struct reiserfs_transaction_handle *th,
 	if (IS_ERR(dentry))
 		return PTR_ERR(dentry);
 
-	down_write(&REISERFS_I(inode)->i_xattr_sem);
+	reiserfs_down_read_safe(&REISERFS_I(inode)->i_xattr_sem, inode->i_sb);
 
 	xahash = xattr_hash(buffer, buffer_size);
 	while (buffer_pos < buffer_size || buffer_pos == 0) {
diff --git a/include/linux/reiserfs_fs.h b/include/linux/reiserfs_fs.h
index 4351b49e2b1e..35d3f459b0ac 100644
--- a/include/linux/reiserfs_fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/reiserfs_fs.h
@@ -106,6 +106,14 @@ reiserfs_mutex_lock_nested_safe(struct mutex *m, unsigned int subclass,
 	reiserfs_write_lock(s);
 }
 
+static inline void
+reiserfs_down_read_safe(struct rw_semaphore *sem, struct super_block *s)
+{
+	reiserfs_write_unlock(s);
+	down_read(sem);
+	reiserfs_write_lock(s);
+}
+
 /*
  * When we schedule, we usually want to also release the write lock,
  * according to the previous bkl based locking scheme of reiserfs.