diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/SchemaResource.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/SchemaResource.java
index f85ddacd12c..2f1fc2a1b26 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/SchemaResource.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/rest/SchemaResource.java
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableExistsException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableName;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableNotEnabledException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HBaseAdmin;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Table;
@@ -231,16 +232,9 @@ public class SchemaResource extends ResourceBase {
     }
     try {
       HBaseAdmin admin = servlet.getAdmin();
-      boolean success = false;
-      for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) try {
+      try {
         admin.disableTable(tableResource.getName());
-        success = true;
-        break;
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-      }
-      if (!success) {
-        throw new IOException("could not disable table");
-      }
+      } catch (TableNotEnabledException e) { /* this is what we want anyway */ }
       admin.deleteTable(tableResource.getName());
       servlet.getMetrics().incrementSucessfulDeleteRequests(1);
       return Response.ok().build();