diff --git a/changes/bug20307 b/changes/bug20307
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9112c9c78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug20307
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes (circuit, hidden service)
+    - When closing a circuit, the reason for doing so was assigned from an int
+      value to a uint16_t which is quite a problem for negative values that are
+      our internal reasons (ex: END_CIRC_REASON_IP_NOW_REDUNDANT). On the HS
+      side, this was causing introduction points to be flagged as unusable
+      because the reason wasn't the right one due to the bad conversion.
+      Partially fixes bug 21056 and fixes bug 20307; Bugfix on 0.2.8.1-alpha.
diff --git a/src/or/or.h b/src/or/or.h
index 66717792b..b7c67baf9 100644
--- a/src/or/or.h
+++ b/src/or/or.h
@@ -2964,11 +2964,11 @@ typedef struct circuit_t {
   /** For what reason (See END_CIRC_REASON...) is this circuit being closed?
    * This field is set in circuit_mark_for_close and used later in
    * circuit_about_to_free. */
-  uint16_t marked_for_close_reason;
+  int marked_for_close_reason;
   /** As marked_for_close_reason, but reflects the underlying reason for
    * closing this circuit.
    */
-  uint16_t marked_for_close_orig_reason;
+  int marked_for_close_orig_reason;
 
   /** Unique ID for measuring tunneled network status requests. */
   uint64_t dirreq_id;