diff --git a/fs/reiserfs/stree.c b/fs/reiserfs/stree.c
index 960c9114f6d3..6b025a42d510 100644
--- a/fs/reiserfs/stree.c
+++ b/fs/reiserfs/stree.c
@@ -519,12 +519,22 @@ static int is_tree_node(struct buffer_head *bh, int level)
 
 #define SEARCH_BY_KEY_READA 16
 
-/* The function is NOT SCHEDULE-SAFE! */
-static void search_by_key_reada(struct super_block *s,
+/*
+ * The function is NOT SCHEDULE-SAFE!
+ * It might unlock the write lock if we needed to wait for a block
+ * to be read. Note that in this case it won't recover the lock to avoid
+ * high contention resulting from too much lock requests, especially
+ * the caller (search_by_key) will perform other schedule-unsafe
+ * operations just after calling this function.
+ *
+ * @return true if we have unlocked
+ */
+static bool search_by_key_reada(struct super_block *s,
 				struct buffer_head **bh,
 				b_blocknr_t *b, int num)
 {
 	int i, j;
+	bool unlocked = false;
 
 	for (i = 0; i < num; i++) {
 		bh[i] = sb_getblk(s, b[i]);
@@ -536,16 +546,21 @@ static void search_by_key_reada(struct super_block *s,
 	 * the lock. But it's still fine because we check later
 	 * if the tree changed
 	 */
-	reiserfs_write_unlock(s);
 	for (j = 0; j < i; j++) {
 		/*
 		 * note, this needs attention if we are getting rid of the BKL
 		 * you have to make sure the prepared bit isn't set on this buffer
 		 */
-		if (!buffer_uptodate(bh[j]))
+		if (!buffer_uptodate(bh[j])) {
+			if (!unlocked) {
+				reiserfs_write_unlock(s);
+				unlocked = true;
+			}
 			ll_rw_block(READA, 1, bh + j);
+		}
 		brelse(bh[j]);
 	}
+	return unlocked;
 }
 
 /**************************************************************************
@@ -633,15 +648,26 @@ int search_by_key(struct super_block *sb, const struct cpu_key *key,	/* Key to s
 		   have a pointer to it. */
 		if ((bh = last_element->pe_buffer =
 		     sb_getblk(sb, block_number))) {
+			bool unlocked = false;
+
 			if (!buffer_uptodate(bh) && reada_count > 1)
-				/* will unlock the write lock */
-				search_by_key_reada(sb, reada_bh,
+				/* may unlock the write lock */
+				unlocked = search_by_key_reada(sb, reada_bh,
 						    reada_blocks, reada_count);
-			else
+			/*
+			 * If we haven't already unlocked the write lock,
+			 * then we need to do that here before reading
+			 * the current block
+			 */
+			if (!buffer_uptodate(bh) && !unlocked) {
 				reiserfs_write_unlock(sb);
+				unlocked = true;
+			}
 			ll_rw_block(READ, 1, &bh);
 			wait_on_buffer(bh);
-			reiserfs_write_lock(sb);
+
+			if (unlocked)
+				reiserfs_write_lock(sb);
 			if (!buffer_uptodate(bh))
 				goto io_error;
 		} else {