diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 9ef4ace85af..b765963577d 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -625,6 +625,9 @@ Release 0.23.1 - Unreleased
     MAPREDUCE-3708. Metrics: Incorrect Apps Submitted Count (Bhallamudi via 
     mahadev)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3727. jobtoken location property in jobconf refers to wrong 
+    jobtoken file (tucu)
+
 Release 0.23.0 - 2011-11-01 
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/JobSubmitter.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/JobSubmitter.java
index f63352b4dd1..4038f65cd46 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/JobSubmitter.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/JobSubmitter.java
@@ -369,6 +369,12 @@ class JobSubmitter {
       conf.set(toFullPropertyName(queue,
           QueueACL.ADMINISTER_JOBS.getAclName()), acl.getAclString());
 
+      // removing jobtoken referrals before copying the jobconf to HDFS
+      // as the tasks don't need this setting, actually they may break
+      // because of it if present as the referral will point to a
+      // different job.
+      TokenCache.cleanUpTokenReferral(conf);
+
       // Write job file to submit dir
       writeConf(conf, submitJobFile);
       
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TokenCache.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TokenCache.java
index 312faf35925..63cbef73c82 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TokenCache.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TokenCache.java
@@ -79,7 +79,17 @@ public class TokenCache {
     }
     obtainTokensForNamenodesInternal(credentials, ps, conf);
   }
-    
+
+  /**
+   * Remove jobtoken referrals which don't make sense in the context
+   * of the task execution.
+   *
+   * @param conf
+   */
+  public static void cleanUpTokenReferral(Configuration conf) {
+    conf.unset(MRJobConfig.MAPREDUCE_JOB_CREDENTIALS_BINARY);
+  }
+
   static void obtainTokensForNamenodesInternal(Credentials credentials,
       Path[] ps, Configuration conf) throws IOException {
     for(Path p: ps) {
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TestTokenCache.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TestTokenCache.java
index 8c084fe0ba6..5efc33ddc4e 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TestTokenCache.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/security/TestTokenCache.java
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.security;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.any;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
@@ -33,6 +35,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.Text;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Master;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MRJobConfig;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.Credentials;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.token.Token;
 import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.conf.YarnConfiguration;
@@ -158,4 +161,13 @@ public class TestTokenCache {
 
     return mockFs;
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testCleanUpTokenReferral() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.set(MRJobConfig.MAPREDUCE_JOB_CREDENTIALS_BINARY, "foo");
+    TokenCache.cleanUpTokenReferral(conf);
+    assertNull(conf.get(MRJobConfig.MAPREDUCE_JOB_CREDENTIALS_BINARY));
+  }
+  
 }