diff --git a/activemq-core/src/main/java/org/activemq/broker/region/PrefetchSubscription.java b/activemq-core/src/main/java/org/activemq/broker/region/PrefetchSubscription.java
index 85d38a26c0..88aac87b67 100755
--- a/activemq-core/src/main/java/org/activemq/broker/region/PrefetchSubscription.java
+++ b/activemq-core/src/main/java/org/activemq/broker/region/PrefetchSubscription.java
@@ -256,6 +256,8 @@ abstract public class PrefetchSubscription extends AbstractSubscription {
             if( info.isDispatchAsync() ) {
                 md.setConsumer(new Runnable(){
                     public void run() {
+                        // Since the message gets queued up in async dispatch, we don't want to 
+                        // decrease the reference count until it gets put on the wire.
                         onDispatch(node, message);
                     }
                 });
@@ -264,6 +266,10 @@ abstract public class PrefetchSubscription extends AbstractSubscription {
                 context.getConnection().dispatchSync(md);
                 onDispatch(node, message);
             }
+            // The onDispatch() does the node.decrementReferenceCount();
+        } else {
+            // We were not allowed to dispatch that message (an other consumer grabbed it before we did)
+            node.decrementReferenceCount();
         }
         
     }