diff --git a/etc/example.conf b/etc/example.conf
index f9c368b6..dc7a4d12 100644
--- a/etc/example.conf
+++ b/etc/example.conf
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ number_of_worker_processes=2
 max_connections=64
 
 ; number of processed emails per each piler process
-max_requests_per_child=1000
+max_requests_per_child=10000
 
 ; SMTP HELO identification string
 ; this should be the FQDN part of the email address
diff --git a/src/cfg.c b/src/cfg.c
index 27e21db2..490011b6 100644
--- a/src/cfg.c
+++ b/src/cfg.c
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ struct _parse_rule config_parse_rules[] =
    { "listen_port", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, listen_port), "25", sizeof(int)},
    { "locale", "string", (void*) string_parser, offsetof(struct config, locale), "", MAXVAL-1},
    { "max_connections", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, max_connections), "64", sizeof(int)},
-   { "max_requests_per_child", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, max_requests_per_child), "1000", sizeof(int)},
+   { "max_requests_per_child", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, max_requests_per_child), "10000", sizeof(int)},
    { "memcached_servers", "string", (void*) string_parser, offsetof(struct config, memcached_servers), "127.0.0.1", MAXVAL-1},
    { "memcached_to_db_interval", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, memcached_to_db_interval), "900", sizeof(int)},
    { "memcached_ttl", "integer", (void*) int_parser, offsetof(struct config, memcached_ttl), "86400", sizeof(int)},
diff --git a/src/piler.c b/src/piler.c
index cf0d9416..16c59dc6 100644
--- a/src/piler.c
+++ b/src/piler.c
@@ -283,13 +283,13 @@ void child_main(struct child *ptr){
 
       sig_unblock(SIGHUP);
 
-      // TODO: do we want to quit after processing a certain number of messages?
-
-      //if(cfg.max_requests_per_child > 0 && ptr->messages >= cfg.max_requests_per_child){
-      //   if(cfg.verbosity >= _LOG_DEBUG) syslog(LOG_PRIORITY, "child (pid: %d, serial: %d) served enough: %d", getpid(), ptr->messages, ptr->serial);
-      //   break;
-      //}
+      // Let the child quit after processing max_requests_per_child messages
 
+      if(cfg.max_requests_per_child > 0 && ptr->messages >= cfg.max_requests_per_child){
+         if(cfg.verbosity >= _LOG_DEBUG)
+            syslog(LOG_PRIORITY, "child (pid: %d, serial: %d) served enough: %d", getpid(), ptr->messages, ptr->serial);
+         break;
+      }
    }
 
 #ifdef HAVE_MEMCACHED