diff --git a/gnu-system.am b/gnu-system.am
index 0ce1a3f015..3eb01c3b1c 100644
--- a/gnu-system.am
+++ b/gnu-system.am
@@ -467,6 +467,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   gnu/packages/patches/flint-ldconfig.patch			\
   gnu/packages/patches/fltk-shared-lib-defines.patch		\
   gnu/packages/patches/freeimage-CVE-2015-0852.patch		\
+  gnu/packages/patches/gawk-fts-test.patch			\
   gnu/packages/patches/gawk-shell.patch				\
   gnu/packages/patches/gcc-arm-link-spec-fix.patch		\
   gnu/packages/patches/gcc-cross-environment-variables.patch	\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/gawk.scm b/gnu/packages/gawk.scm
index 6bfea34667..8f2805cd4b 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/gawk.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/gawk.scm
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU
-;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
+;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2014, 2015 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
 ;;;
 ;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 (define-module (gnu packages gawk)
   #:use-module (guix licenses)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages)
   #:use-module (gnu packages bash)
   #:use-module (gnu packages libsigsegv)
   #:use-module (guix packages)
@@ -34,7 +35,8 @@
             (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/gawk/gawk-" version
                                 ".tar.xz"))
             (sha256
-             (base32 "09d6pmx6h3i2glafm0jd1v1iyrs03vcyv2rkz12jisii3vlmbkz3"))))
+             (base32 "09d6pmx6h3i2glafm0jd1v1iyrs03vcyv2rkz12jisii3vlmbkz3"))
+            (patches (list (search-patch "gawk-fts-test.patch")))))
    (build-system gnu-build-system)
    (arguments
     `(#:parallel-tests? #f                ; test suite fails in parallel
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/gawk-fts-test.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/gawk-fts-test.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..de1f5c431c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/gawk-fts-test.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+This is upstream commit c9a018c.  We have observed random failures of
+this test on i686 that seem related to load.
+
+2015-05-21         Arnold D. Robbins     <arnold@skeeve.com>
+
+	* fts.awk: Really remove atime from the output. 
+	This avoids spurious failures on heavily loaded systems.
+
+diff --git a/test/fts.awk b/test/fts.awk
+index b1df060..dea5b68 100644
+--- a/test/fts.awk
++++ b/test/fts.awk
+@@ -50,6 +50,11 @@ function sort_traverse(data,	sorted, i)
+ {
+ 	asorti(data, sorted)
+ 	for (i = 1; i in sorted; i++) {
++		# 5/2015: skip for atime, since there can
++		# occasionally be small differences.
++		if (sorted[i] == "atime")
++			continue
++
+ 		indent()
+ 		printf("%s --> %s\n", sorted[i], data[sorted[i]]) > output
+ 	}
+@@ -63,17 +68,20 @@ function traverse(data,         i)
+ 			printf("%s:\n", i) > output
+ 
+ 			Level++
+-			if (("mtime" in data[i]) && ! isarray(data[i][mtime])) {
++			if (("mtime" in data[i]) && ! isarray(data[i]["mtime"])) {
+ 				sort_traverse(data[i])
+ 			} else {
+ 				traverse(data[i])
+ 			}
+ 			Level--
+-		} else if (data[i] != "atime") {
+-			# 4/2015: skip for atime, since there can
+-			# occasionally be small differences.
+-			indent()
+-			printf("%s --> %s\n", i, data[i]) > output
++#		} else {
++#			JUNK = 1
++#			if (i != "atime") {
++#				# 4/2015: skip for atime, since there can
++#				# occasionally be small differences.
++#				indent()
++#				printf("%s --> %s\n", i, data[i]) > output
++#			}
+ 		}
+ 	}
+ }