diff --git a/core/algorithms/canonicalise.cc b/core/algorithms/canonicalise.cc
index e7bd6279d0..1230a47e6b 100644
--- a/core/algorithms/canonicalise.cc
+++ b/core/algorithms/canonicalise.cc
@@ -395,6 +395,9 @@ Algorithm::result_t canonicalise::apply(iterator& it)
 			// std::cerr << Ex(facit) << " has tableaubase " << tba << std::endl;
 			if(tba) {
 				unsigned int num_ind=number_of_indices(facit);
+#ifdef XPERM_DEBUG
+				std::cerr << "factor " << *facit->name << " has " << num_ind << " indices" << std::endl;
+#endif
 
 				// Add indices to the base. We used to add everything except the last one, but that
 				// seems to be the wrong thing to do after the XPERM -> XPERM_EXT upgrade (see Jose's email).
diff --git a/core/properties/AntiSymmetric.cc b/core/properties/AntiSymmetric.cc
index 8e5bd81bab..75418e3bf2 100644
--- a/core/properties/AntiSymmetric.cc
+++ b/core/properties/AntiSymmetric.cc
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ TableauBase::tab_t AntiSymmetric::get_tab(const Properties& pr, Ex& tr, Ex::iter
 		}
 
 	tab_t tab;
-	for(unsigned int i=0; i<Ex::number_of_children(it); ++i)
+	for(unsigned int i=0; i<Algorithm::number_of_indices(pr, it); ++i)
 		tab.add_box(i,i);
 	return tab;
 	}
diff --git a/core/properties/Symmetric.cc b/core/properties/Symmetric.cc
index 41e98b9eb6..0389282f82 100644
--- a/core/properties/Symmetric.cc
+++ b/core/properties/Symmetric.cc
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 
+#include "Algorithm.hh"
 #include "properties/Symmetric.hh"
 
 using namespace cadabra;
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ TableauBase::tab_t Symmetric::get_tab(const Properties& pr, Ex& tr, Ex::iterator
 		}
 
 	tab_t tab;
-	for(unsigned int i=0; i<tr.number_of_children(it); ++i)
+	for(unsigned int i=0; i<Algorithm::number_of_indices(pr, it); ++i)
 		tab.add_box(0,i);
 	return tab;
 	}
diff --git a/tests/canonicalise.cdb b/tests/canonicalise.cdb
index 0e6a46c581..065ec28a3c 100644
--- a/tests/canonicalise.cdb
+++ b/tests/canonicalise.cdb
@@ -906,3 +906,16 @@ def test60():
    print("Test 60b passed")
 
 test60()
+
+def test61():
+   {a,b,c,d#}::Indices(position=independent).
+   \bar{#}::Accent.
+   \bar{A}_{a b}::Symmetric.
+   \bar{A}^{a b}::Symmetric.
+   ex := \bar{A}_{a b} \bar{A}^{b a};
+   canonicalise (ex);
+   tst:= \bar{A}_{a b} \bar{A}^{a b} - @(ex);
+   assert(tst==0)
+   print("Test 61 passed")
+
+test61()