diff --git a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/document/LatLonGrid.java b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/document/LatLonGrid.java
index 7cb047affcd..e5718e24458 100644
--- a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/document/LatLonGrid.java
+++ b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/document/LatLonGrid.java
@@ -22,8 +22,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.util.FixedBitSet;
 
 import static org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoEncodingUtils.decodeLatitude;
 import static org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoEncodingUtils.decodeLongitude;
-import static org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoEncodingUtils.encodeLatitude;
-import static org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoEncodingUtils.encodeLongitude;
 
 /**
  * This is a temporary hack, until some polygon methods have better performance!
@@ -80,8 +78,10 @@ final class LatLonGrid {
     long latitudeRange = maxLat - (long) minLat;
     long longitudeRange = maxLon - (long) minLon;
 
-    if (latitudeRange < GRID_SIZE || longitudeRange < GRID_SIZE) {
-      // don't complicate fill right now if you pass e.g. emptyish stuff: make an "empty grid"
+    // if the range is too small, we can't divide it up in our grid nicely.
+    // in this case of a tiny polygon, we just make an empty grid instead of complicating/slowing down code.
+    final long minRange = (GRID_SIZE - 1) * (GRID_SIZE - 1);
+    if (latitudeRange < minRange || longitudeRange < minRange) {
       latPerCell = lonPerCell = Long.MAX_VALUE;
     } else {
       // we spill over the edge of the bounding box in each direction a bit,
@@ -160,7 +160,9 @@ final class LatLonGrid {
     long lonRel = longitude - (long) minLon;
     
     int latIndex = (int) (latRel / latPerCell);
+    assert latIndex < GRID_SIZE;
     int lonIndex = (int) (lonRel / lonPerCell);
+    assert lonIndex < GRID_SIZE;
     return latIndex * GRID_SIZE + lonIndex;
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/sandbox/src/test/org/apache/lucene/document/TestLatLonGrid.java b/lucene/sandbox/src/test/org/apache/lucene/document/TestLatLonGrid.java
index 0b739aee25e..891e3d52fba 100644
--- a/lucene/sandbox/src/test/org/apache/lucene/document/TestLatLonGrid.java
+++ b/lucene/sandbox/src/test/org/apache/lucene/document/TestLatLonGrid.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.apache.lucene.document;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoTestUtil;
+import org.apache.lucene.geo.GeoUtils;
 import org.apache.lucene.geo.Polygon;
 import org.apache.lucene.geo.Rectangle;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ public class TestLatLonGrid extends LuceneTestCase {
 
   /** If the grid returns true, then any point in that cell should return true as well */
   public void testRandom() throws Exception {
-    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
+    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
       Polygon polygon = GeoTestUtil.nextPolygon();
       Rectangle box = Rectangle.fromPolygon(new Polygon[] { polygon });
       int minLat = encodeLatitude(box.minLat);
@@ -52,4 +53,54 @@ public class TestLatLonGrid extends LuceneTestCase {
       }
     }
   }
+
+  public void testGrowingPolygon() {
+    double centerLat = -80.0 + random().nextDouble() * 160.0;
+    double centerLon = -170.0 + random().nextDouble() * 340.0;
+    double radiusMeters = 0.0;
+    for(int i=0;i<10;i++) {
+      radiusMeters = Math.nextUp(radiusMeters);
+    }
+
+    // Start with a miniscule polygon, and grow it:
+    int gons = TestUtil.nextInt(random(), 4, 10);
+    while (radiusMeters < GeoUtils.EARTH_MEAN_RADIUS_METERS * Math.PI / 2.0 + 1.0) {
+      Polygon polygon;
+      try {
+        polygon = GeoTestUtil.createRegularPolygon(centerLat, centerLon, radiusMeters, gons);
+      } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
+        // OK: we made a too-big poly and it crossed a pole or dateline
+        break;
+      }
+      radiusMeters *= 1.1;
+
+      Rectangle box = Rectangle.fromPolygon(new Polygon[] { polygon });
+      int minLat = encodeLatitude(box.minLat);
+      int maxLat = encodeLatitude(box.maxLat);
+      int minLon = encodeLongitude(box.minLon);
+      int maxLon = encodeLongitude(box.maxLon);
+      LatLonGrid grid = new LatLonGrid(minLat, maxLat, minLon, maxLon, polygon);
+      // we are in integer space... but exhaustive testing is slow!
+      for (int j = 0; j < 1000; j++) {
+        int lat = TestUtil.nextInt(random(), minLat, maxLat);
+        int lon = TestUtil.nextInt(random(), minLon, maxLon);
+
+        boolean expected = polygon.contains(decodeLatitude(lat),
+                                            decodeLongitude(lon));
+        boolean actual = grid.contains(lat, lon);
+        assertEquals(expected, actual);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  
+  /** create ever-increasing grids and check that too-small polygons don't blow it up */
+  public void testTinyGrids() {
+    double ZERO = decodeLatitude(0);
+    double ONE = decodeLatitude(1);
+    Polygon tiny = new Polygon(new double[] { ZERO, ZERO, ONE, ONE, ZERO }, new double[] { ZERO, ONE, ONE, ZERO, ZERO });
+    for (int max = 1; max < 500000; max++) {
+      LatLonGrid grid = new LatLonGrid(0, max, 0, max, tiny);
+      assertEquals(tiny.contains(decodeLatitude(max), decodeLongitude(max)), grid.contains(max, max));
+    }
+  }
 }