diff --git a/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c b/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
index fab4b9b2664f..1597f6b649e0 100644
--- a/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
+++ b/fs/reiserfs/xattr.c
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ reiserfs_xattr_set(struct inode *inode, const char *name, const void *buffer,
 	/* Resize it so we're ok to write there */
 	newattrs.ia_size = buffer_size;
 	newattrs.ia_valid = ATTR_SIZE | ATTR_CTIME;
-	mutex_lock(&xinode->i_mutex);
+	mutex_lock_nested(&xinode->i_mutex, I_MUTEX_XATTR);
 	err = notify_change(fp->f_path.dentry, &newattrs);
 	if (err)
 		goto out_filp;
@@ -1223,7 +1223,8 @@ int reiserfs_xattr_init(struct super_block *s, int mount_flags)
 		if (!IS_ERR(dentry)) {
 			if (!(mount_flags & MS_RDONLY) && !dentry->d_inode) {
 				struct inode *inode = dentry->d_parent->d_inode;
-				mutex_lock(&inode->i_mutex);
+				mutex_lock_nested(&inode->i_mutex,
+						  I_MUTEX_XATTR);
 				err = inode->i_op->mkdir(inode, dentry, 0700);
 				mutex_unlock(&inode->i_mutex);
 				if (err) {