diff --git a/lib/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport.rb b/lib/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport.rb
index 9ea681d6..29b3518e 100644
--- a/lib/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport.rb
+++ b/lib/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport.rb
@@ -476,6 +476,9 @@ def handle_request(request)
         # with a `StandardError` does not stop the teardown below: `join` re-raises the exception a thread died with,
         # which is not this method's to raise. A reaper still alive after the wait is killed as before, leaving
         # the streams of that reap it had not closed yet as they were.
+        # A `close` running on the reaper thread itself, reached from a stream's `close` or from the exception reporter
+        # during a reap, neither joins nor kills it: the join would fail on its own thread and the kill would end
+        # this teardown with the reap that called it. The reaper leaves its loop on `@closing` once that reap returns.
         def close
           reaper = @mutex.synchronize do
             @closing = true
@@ -483,13 +486,15 @@ def close
             @reaper_thread
           end
 
-          begin
-            reaper&.join(REAPER_JOIN_TIMEOUT)
-          rescue StandardError
-            # The reaper is gone either way; the exception that ended it is not this method's to report.
-          end
+          if reaper && !reaper.equal?(Thread.current)
+            begin
+              reaper.join(REAPER_JOIN_TIMEOUT)
+            rescue StandardError
+              # The reaper is gone either way; the exception that ended it is not this method's to report.
+            end
 
-          reaper.kill if reaper&.alive?
+            reaper.kill if reaper.alive?
+          end
           @reaper_thread = nil
 
           teardown_listen_subscriptions
diff --git a/test/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport_test.rb b/test/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport_test.rb
index b721341a..df1d173c 100644
--- a/test/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport_test.rb
+++ b/test/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport_test.rb
@@ -4781,6 +4781,36 @@ def string
           transport.close
         end
 
+        test "close called from inside a reap tears the transport down and lets the reaper finish" do
+          transport = StreamableHTTPTransport.new(@server, session_idle_timeout: 0.01)
+          init_request = create_rack_request(
+            "POST",
+            "/",
+            { "CONTENT_TYPE" => "application/json" },
+            { jsonrpc: "2.0", method: "initialize", id: "init", params: initialize_params }.to_json,
+          )
+          session_id = transport.handle_request(init_request)[1]["mcp-session-id"]
+          listen_io = open_listen_stream(id: "listen-1", notifications: { toolsListChanged: true }, transport: transport)
+
+          # A host closing the transport from a stream's close hook puts `close` on the reaper thread.
+          closing_stream = Object.new
+          closing_stream.define_singleton_method(:close) { transport.close }
+          transport.instance_variable_get(:@sessions)[session_id][:get_sse_stream] = closing_stream
+          reaper_thread = transport.instance_variable_get(:@reaper_thread)
+
+          sleep(0.02) # Wait for the session to expire.
+
+          assert wake_reaper_until(transport) { !reaper_thread.alive? }, "the reaper did not end"
+          reaper_thread.join # Re-raises an exception the reaper died with.
+
+          assert_empty transport.instance_variable_get(:@listen_subscriptions), "the listen teardown did not run"
+          assert_predicate listen_io, :closed?
+          assert_empty transport.instance_variable_get(:@sessions)
+          assert_nil transport.instance_variable_get(:@reaper_thread)
+        ensure
+          transport.close
+        end
+
         test "reaper thread is not started when session_idle_timeout is nil" do
           transport = StreamableHTTPTransport.new(@server, session_idle_timeout: nil)
           assert_nil(transport.instance_variable_get(:@reaper_thread))