diff --git a/driver/ppm_events_public.h b/driver/ppm_events_public.h
index 83d12f2729..b4634fb41c 100644
--- a/driver/ppm_events_public.h
+++ b/driver/ppm_events_public.h
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ or GPL2.txt for full copies of the license.
 #define PPM_CL_CLONE_NEWCGROUP (1 << 28)
 #define PPM_CL_CHILD_IN_PIDNS (1<<29)			/* true if the thread created by clone() is *not*
 									in the init pid namespace */
+#define PPM_CL_FROM_PROC (1<<30)			/* thread found via /proc scan or lookup, not via clone event */
 
 /*
  * Futex Operations
diff --git a/userspace/libsinsp/parsers.cpp b/userspace/libsinsp/parsers.cpp
index 1af0a4b3b7..d9602fc399 100644
--- a/userspace/libsinsp/parsers.cpp
+++ b/userspace/libsinsp/parsers.cpp
@@ -1014,7 +1014,26 @@ void sinsp_parser::parse_clone_exit(sinsp_evt *evt)
 		//
 		if(evt->m_tinfo && evt->m_tinfo->m_clone_ts != 0)
 		{
-			if(evt->get_ts() - evt->m_tinfo->m_clone_ts > CLONE_STALE_TIME_NS)
+			// has the original thread lived long enough to assume
+			// it can't possibly be the same thread and we must have lost
+			// the exit event?
+			bool long_lived = evt->get_ts() - evt->m_tinfo->m_clone_ts > CLONE_STALE_TIME_NS;
+
+			// if the old thread appeared in response to a clone event,
+			// we know it's a different one, so we can unconditionally
+			// replace it (we've rolled over all pids in the CLONE_STALE_TIME_NS
+			// interval)
+			bool from_proc = evt->m_tinfo->m_flags & PPM_CL_FROM_PROC;
+
+			// XXX: we probably want to treat threads that have already exited
+			// as stale, but we cannot rely 100% on the event ordering
+			// Otherwise, a clone event would always signal the existing
+			// entry is stale; AIUI, we can receive other events from
+			// a freshly cloned thread before we see its clone event
+//			bool already_closed = evt->m_tinfo->m_flags & PPM_CL_CLOSED;
+//			bool stale = already_closed || !from_proc;
+			bool stale = !from_proc;
+			if(long_lived || stale)
 			{
 				m_inspector->remove_thread(tid, true);
 				evt->m_tinfo = NULL;
diff --git a/userspace/libsinsp/threadinfo.cpp b/userspace/libsinsp/threadinfo.cpp
index 02a2c26470..2875a4f2e9 100644
--- a/userspace/libsinsp/threadinfo.cpp
+++ b/userspace/libsinsp/threadinfo.cpp
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ void sinsp_threadinfo::init(scap_threadinfo* pi)
 		set_cwd(pi->cwd, (uint32_t)strlen(pi->cwd));
 	}
 	m_flags |= pi->flags;
-	m_flags |= PPM_CL_ACTIVE; // Assume that all the threads coming from /proc are real, active threads
+	m_flags |= PPM_CL_ACTIVE | PPM_CL_FROM_PROC; // Assume that all the threads coming from /proc are real, active threads
 	m_fdtable.clear();
 	m_fdlimit = pi->fdlimit;
 	m_uid = pi->uid;