diff --git a/lib/puppet/type/tidy.rb b/lib/puppet/type/tidy.rb
index 48c62ac7bb8..cf0b738ab62 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/type/tidy.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/type/tidy.rb
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@
 
   newparam(:recurse) do
     desc "If target is a directory, recursively descend
-      into the directory looking for files to tidy."
+      into the directory looking for files to tidy. Numeric values
+      specify a limit for the recursion depth, `true` means
+      unrestricted recursion."
 
     newvalues(:true, :false, :inf, /^[0-9]+$/)