diff --git a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/scripts/leaf/events.py b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/scripts/leaf/events.py
index 4ed03bed5..6789cf575 100644
--- a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/scripts/leaf/events.py
+++ b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/scripts/leaf/events.py
@@ -57,6 +57,15 @@ def undo_error(event: dict, events: list, within: dict) -> str | None:
         return f"unknown undoes {event['undoes']!r}"
     if target["author"] != "user":
         return f"{target['kind']} {target['id']} is not the reader's own gesture"
+    # Asked before the kind's own questions rather than after them, because a gesture
+    # already taken back is gone from the folds those questions read: `build_threads`
+    # drops a withdrawn reaction, so the thread walk below found none and raised
+    # StopIteration out of the append door. That is a 500, which the browser is told to
+    # retry against a state that will never change again — the outbox wedges on the
+    # gesture instead of putting it back. Withdrawal is a fact about the target and not
+    # about its kind, and it is the same no-op whichever kind carries it.
+    if target["id"] in taken_back(events):
+        return f"{target['id']} has already been taken back"
     if target["kind"] in MESSAGE_KINDS:
         if not is_reaction(target):
             return (
@@ -80,8 +89,6 @@ def undo_error(event: dict, events: list, within: dict) -> str | None:
             f"{target['kind']} events cannot be taken back (the kinds that can "
             f"are {', '.join(sorted(UNDOABLE_KINDS))} and a reaction)"
         )
-    if target["id"] in taken_back(events):
-        return f"{target['id']} has already been taken back"
     return None
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_interact_contract.py b/tests/test_interact_contract.py
index 7da0a82fc..b32ddaea2 100644
--- a/tests/test_interact_contract.py
+++ b/tests/test_interact_contract.py
@@ -3222,6 +3222,19 @@ def test_the_door_admits_a_reaction_only_as_a_token_the_layer_declares(
         data=json.dumps({"kind": "undo", "undoes": nod["id"]}).encode(),
     )
     assert status == 200, body
+    # And comes off once, however the second press gets here — the racing tab of the
+    # door's own docstring. A withdrawn reaction is gone from `build_threads`, so the
+    # kind's thread walk had nothing to find and raised out of the door instead: a 500
+    # the browser is told to retry, against a state that will never answer differently.
+    # The no-op costs a toast, which is what a final refusal is.
+    status, body = fetch(
+        f"{server}/api/event",
+        data=json.dumps({"kind": "undo", "undoes": nod["id"]}).encode(),
+    )
+    assert status == 400, body
+    answer = json.loads(body)
+    assert answer["final"] is True, body
+    assert "already been taken back" in answer["error"], body
     # Answered, the page reaction is a conversation, and the withdrawal would orphan
     # the answer; the reader's move is in the thread it opened.
     conversation_model.cmd_reply(page_dir, reaction["id"], "Which part is long?", None)