diff --git a/lib/vmpooler/api/v1.rb b/lib/vmpooler/api/v1.rb
index b10cc7b..d57def9 100644
--- a/lib/vmpooler/api/v1.rb
+++ b/lib/vmpooler/api/v1.rb
@@ -68,9 +68,9 @@ module Vmpooler
       end
 
       template_backends.each do |template_backend|
-        vm = backend.spop("vmpooler__ready__#{template_backend}")
+        vm = backend.smembers("vmpooler__ready__#{template_backend}")[-1]
         if vm
-          backend.sadd("vmpooler__running__#{template_backend}", vm)
+          backend.smove("vmpooler__ready__#{template_backend}", "vmpooler__running__#{template_backend}", vm)
           return [vm, template_backend, template]
         end
       end
diff --git a/spec/integration/api/v1/vm_spec.rb b/spec/integration/api/v1/vm_spec.rb
index 8eac59f..a7712bd 100644
--- a/spec/integration/api/v1/vm_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/integration/api/v1/vm_spec.rb
@@ -213,6 +213,24 @@ describe Vmpooler::API::V1 do
         expect_json(ok = true, http = 200)
       end
 
+      it 'returns the first VM that was moved to the ready state when checking out a VM' do
+        create_ready_vm 'pool1', '1abcdefghijklmnop'
+        create_ready_vm 'pool1', '2abcdefghijklmnop'
+        create_ready_vm 'pool1', '3abcdefghijklmnop'
+
+        post "#{prefix}/vm", '{"pool1":"1"}'
+
+        expected = {
+          ok: true,
+          "pool1": {
+            "hostname": "1abcdefghijklmnop"
+          }
+        }
+
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq(JSON.pretty_generate(expected))
+        expect_json(ok = true, http = 200)
+      end
+
       it 'fails when not all requested vms can be allocated' do
         create_ready_vm 'pool1', '1abcdefghijklmnop'