diff --git a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
index 33229f9..5999f7d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ public class Template
         if (!_compiler.standardsMode) {
             // if we're dealing with a compound key, resolve each component and use the result to
             // resolve the subsequent component and so forth
-            if (name.indexOf(".") != -1) {
+             
+            if (name.indexOf(DOT_NAME) > 0) {
                 String[] comps = name.split("\\.");
                 // we want to allow the first component of a compound key to be located in a parent
                 // context, but once we're selecting sub-components, they must only be resolved in the
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
index 2c11850..78acb01 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/MustacheTest.java
@@ -169,11 +169,14 @@ public class MustacheTest
 
     @Test public void testTopLevelThis () {
         assertEquals("bar", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{this}}").execute("bar"));
+        assertEquals("bar", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{.}}").execute("bar"));
     }
 
     @Test public void testNestedThis () {
         assertEquals("barbazbif", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{#things}}{{this}}{{/things}}").
                      execute(context("things", Arrays.asList("bar", "baz", "bif"))));
+        assertEquals("barbazbif", Mustache.compiler().compile("{{#things}}{{.}}{{/things}}").
+                execute(context("things", Arrays.asList("bar", "baz", "bif"))));
     }
 
     @Test public void testStructuredVariable () {