diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
index fcbfb21bd20e3..777fc6d68f3cd 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
@@ -1938,7 +1938,11 @@ def verify(df, level, idx, indexer):
                         'joe':['3rd'] * 2 + ['1st'] * 3 + ['2nd'] * 3 +
                               ['1st'] * 2 + ['3rd'] * 3 + ['1st'] * 2 +
                               ['3rd'] * 3 + ['2nd'] * 2,
-                        'jolie':np.random.randint(0, 1000, 20),
+                        # this needs to be jointly unique with jim and joe or
+                        # reindexing will fail ~1.5% of the time, this works
+                        # out to needing unique groups of same size as joe
+                        'jolie': np.concatenate([np.random.choice(1000, x, replace=False)
+                                                 for x in [2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2]]),
                         'joline': np.random.randn(20).round(3) * 10})
 
         for idx in permutations(df['jim'].unique()):