diff --git a/src/Attr.cc b/src/Attr.cc
index 4bfbcf2ad7..14b00bd0d7 100644
--- a/src/Attr.cc
+++ b/src/Attr.cc
@@ -375,12 +375,33 @@ void Attributes::CheckAttr(Attr* a)
 	case ATTR_EXPIRE_READ:
 	case ATTR_EXPIRE_WRITE:
 	case ATTR_EXPIRE_CREATE:
+		{
 		if ( type->Tag() != TYPE_TABLE )
 			{
 			Error("expiration only applicable to tables");
 			break;
 			}
 
+		int num_expires = 0;
+		if ( attrs )
+			{
+			loop_over_list(*attrs, i)
+				{
+				Attr* a = (*attrs)[i];
+				if ( a->Tag() == ATTR_EXPIRE_READ ||
+				     a->Tag() == ATTR_EXPIRE_WRITE ||
+				     a->Tag() == ATTR_EXPIRE_CREATE )
+					num_expires++;
+				}
+			}
+
+		if ( num_expires > 1 )
+			{
+			Error("set/table can only have one of &read_expire, &write_expire, &create_expire");
+			break;
+			}
+		}
+
 #if 0
 		//### not easy to test this w/o knowing the ID.
 		if ( ! IsGlobal() )
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-2/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-2/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ffcdb6ff80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-2/output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+error in /Users/johanna/bro/master/testing/btest/.tmp/language.expire_multiple-2/expire_multiple.test, line 2: set/table can only have one of &read_expire, &write_expire, &create_expire (&write_expire=1.0 sec, &create_expire=3.0 secs)
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-3/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-3/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1dc2e3e765
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple-3/output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+error in /Users/johanna/bro/master/testing/btest/.tmp/language.expire_multiple-3/expire_multiple.test, line 2: set/table can only have one of &read_expire, &write_expire, &create_expire (&write_expire=1.0 sec, &read_expire=3.0 secs)
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a616c84de7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.expire_multiple/output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+error in /Users/johanna/bro/master/testing/btest/.tmp/language.expire_multiple/expire_multiple.test, line 4: set/table can only have one of &read_expire, &write_expire, &create_expire (&create_expire=1.0 sec, &read_expire=1.0 sec)
diff --git a/testing/btest/language/expire_multiple.test b/testing/btest/language/expire_multiple.test
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2293873e59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/language/expire_multiple.test
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# @TEST-EXEC-FAIL: bro -b %INPUT >output 2>&1
+# @TEST-EXEC: btest-diff output
+
+global s: set[string] &create_expire=1secs &read_expire=1secs;
+
+# @TEST-START-NEXT:
+
+global s: set[string] &write_expire=1secs &create_expire=3secs;
+
+# @TEST-START-NEXT:
+
+global s: set[string] &write_expire=1secs &read_expire=3secs;