diff --git a/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/aws/plugins/retry_errors_spec.rb b/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/aws/plugins/retry_errors_spec.rb
index 277e7dfcb2f..7ea64b65756 100644
--- a/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/aws/plugins/retry_errors_spec.rb
+++ b/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/aws/plugins/retry_errors_spec.rb
@@ -310,13 +310,28 @@ module Plugins
             {
               response: { status_code: 200, error: nil },
               expect: { available_capacity: 10, retries: 2 }
-            },
+            }
+          ]
+
+          # failure cases ending in success
+          handle_with_retry(test_case_def)
+
+          # after success, new request
+          test_case_post_success = [
             {
               response: { status_code: 500, error: service_error },
               expect: { available_capacity: 5, retries: 1, delay: 1 }
+            },
+            {
+              response: { status_code: 200, error: nil },
+              expect: { available_capacity: 10, retries: 1 }
             }
           ]
-          handle_with_retry(test_case_def)
+          # reset request
+          config.max_attempts = 2
+          resp.context.retries = 0
+          resp.context.metadata[:retries] = {}
+          handle_with_retry(test_case_post_success)
         end
 
         it 'corrects and retries clock skew errors' do
diff --git a/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/retry_errors_helper.rb b/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/retry_errors_helper.rb
index 759a675ba88..302a7eff733 100644
--- a/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/retry_errors_helper.rb
+++ b/gems/aws-sdk-core/spec/retry_errors_helper.rb
@@ -30,10 +30,18 @@ def handle_with_retry(test_cases)
     resp
   end
 
+  expect(i).to(
+    eq(test_cases.size),
+    "Wrong number of retries. Handler was called #{i} times but "\
+      "#{test_cases.size} test cases were defined."
+  )
+
   # Handle has finished called.  Apply final expectations.
   apply_expectations(test_cases[i - 1])
 end
 
+
+
 # apply a delay to the current test case
 # See handle_with_retry for test case definition
 def apply_delay(test_case)