diff --git a/bin/pt-table-checksum b/bin/pt-table-checksum
index 935e235f..e5d5c1f2 100755
--- a/bin/pt-table-checksum
+++ b/bin/pt-table-checksum
@@ -2485,6 +2485,9 @@ sub get_slaves {
          dsn_table_dsn => $dsn_table_dsn,
       );
    }
+   elsif ( $method =~ m/none/i ) {
+      PTDEBUG && _d('Not getting to slaves');
+   }
    else {
       die "Invalid --recursion-method: $method.  Valid values are: "
         . "dsn=DSN, hosts, or processlist.\n";
@@ -2499,6 +2502,11 @@ sub recurse_to_slaves {
    my $dp   = $args->{dsn_parser};
    my $dsn  = $args->{dsn};
 
+   if ( lc($args->{method} || '') eq 'none' ) {
+      PTDEBUG && _d('Not recursing to slaves');
+      return;
+   }
+
    my $dbh;
    eval {
       $dbh = $args->{dbh} || $dp->get_dbh(
@@ -4080,12 +4088,15 @@ sub _next_boundaries {
       return 1; # continue nibbling
    }
 
+
+
    if ( $self->identical_boundaries($self->{lower}, $self->{next_lower}) ) {
       PTDEBUG && _d('Infinite loop detected');
       my $tbl     = $self->{tbl};
       my $index   = $tbl->{tbl_struct}->{keys}->{$self->{index}};
       my $n_cols  = scalar @{$index->{cols}};
       my $chunkno = $self->{nibbleno};
+
       die "Possible infinite loop detected!  "
          . "The lower boundary for chunk $chunkno is "
          . "<" . join(', ', @{$self->{lower}}) . "> and the lower "
@@ -4112,6 +4123,7 @@ sub _next_boundaries {
       }
    }
 
+
    PTDEBUG && _d($self->{ub_sth}->{Statement}, 'params:',
       join(', ', @{$self->{lower}}), $self->{limit});
    $self->{ub_sth}->execute(@{$self->{lower}}, $self->{limit});
diff --git a/lib/MasterSlave.pm b/lib/MasterSlave.pm
index 89167592..054e4a27 100644
--- a/lib/MasterSlave.pm
+++ b/lib/MasterSlave.pm
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ sub get_slaves {
          dsn_table_dsn => $dsn_table_dsn,
       );
    }
+   elsif ( $method =~ m/none/i ) {
+      # https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit/+bug/987694
+      PTDEBUG && _d('Not getting to slaves');
+   }
    else {
       die "Invalid --recursion-method: $method.  Valid values are: "
         . "dsn=DSN, hosts, or processlist.\n";
@@ -110,6 +114,12 @@ sub recurse_to_slaves {
    my $dp   = $args->{dsn_parser};
    my $dsn  = $args->{dsn};
 
+   if ( lc($args->{method} || '') eq 'none' ) {
+      # https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit/+bug/987694
+      PTDEBUG && _d('Not recursing to slaves');
+      return;
+   }
+
    my $dbh;
    eval {
       $dbh = $args->{dbh} || $dp->get_dbh(
diff --git a/t/lib/MasterSlave.t b/t/lib/MasterSlave.t
index 72fce9fa..fb4c00d4 100644
--- a/t/lib/MasterSlave.t
+++ b/t/lib/MasterSlave.t
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ BEGIN {
 use strict;
 use warnings FATAL => 'all';
 use English qw(-no_match_vars);
-use Test::More tests => 47;
+use Test::More tests => 50;
 
 use MasterSlave;
 use DSNParser;
@@ -119,6 +119,96 @@ SKIP: {
       [],
       "get_slaves() by processlist"
    );
+
+   # ##########################################################################
+   # --recursion-method=none
+   # https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit/+bug/987694
+   # ##########################################################################
+
+   # Create percona.checksums to make the privs happy.
+   diag(`/tmp/12345/use -e "create database if not exists percona"`);
+   diag(`/tmp/12345/use -e "create table if not exists percona.checksums (id int)"`);
+   
+   # Create a read-only checksum user that can't SHOW SLAVES HOSTS or much else.
+   diag(`/tmp/12345/use -u root < $trunk/t/lib/samples/ro-checksum-user.sql`);
+
+   my $ro_dbh = DBI->connect(
+      "DBI:mysql:;host=127.0.0.1;port=12345", 'ro_checksum_user', 'msandbox',
+           { PrintError => 0, RaiseError => 1 });
+   my $ro_dsn = {
+      h => '127.1',
+      P => '12345',
+      u => 'ro_checksum_user',
+      p => 'ro_checksum_user',
+   };
+
+   @ARGV = ('--recursion-method', 'hosts');
+   $o->get_opts();
+   throws_ok(
+      sub {
+         $slaves = $ms->get_slaves(
+            OptionParser => $o,
+            DSNParser    => $dp,
+            Quoter       => $q,
+            dbh          => $ro_dbh,
+            dsn          => $ro_dsn,
+            make_cxn     => sub {
+               my $cxn = new Cxn(
+                  @_,
+                  DSNParser    => $dp,
+                  OptionParser => $o,
+               );
+               $cxn->connect();
+               return $cxn;
+            },
+         );
+      },
+      qr/Access denied/,
+      "Can't SHOW SLAVE HOSTS without privs (bug 987694)"
+   );
+
+   @ARGV = ('--recursion-method', 'none');
+   $o->get_opts();
+   $slaves = $ms->get_slaves(
+      OptionParser => $o,
+      DSNParser    => $dp,
+      Quoter       => $q,
+      dbh          => $ro_dbh,
+      dsn          => $ro_dsn,
+      make_cxn     => sub {
+         my $cxn = new Cxn(
+            @_,
+            DSNParser    => $dp,
+            OptionParser => $o,
+         );
+         $cxn->connect();
+         return $cxn;
+      },
+   );
+   is_deeply(
+      $slaves,
+      [],
+      "No privs needed for --recursion-method=none (bug 987694)"
+   );
+
+   my $recursed = 0;
+   $ms->recurse_to_slaves(
+      {  dsn_parser => $dp,
+         dbh        => $ro_dbh,
+         dsn        => $ro_dsn,
+         recurse    => 2,
+         callback   => sub { $recursed++ },
+         method     => 'none',
+      });
+   is(
+      $recursed,
+      0,
+      "recurse_to_slaves() doesn't recurse if method=none"
+   );
+
+   $ro_dbh->disconnect();
+   diag(`/tmp/12345/use -u root -e "drop user 'ro_checksum_user'\@'%'"`);
+
 }
 
 # #############################################################################
diff --git a/t/lib/samples/ro-checksum-user.sql b/t/lib/samples/ro-checksum-user.sql
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f0f73b20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/lib/samples/ro-checksum-user.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+CREATE USER 'ro_checksum_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'msandbox';
+GRANT SELECT ON sakila.* TO 'ro_checksum_user'@'%';
+GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON percona.checksums TO 'ro_checksum_user'@'%';
diff --git a/t/pt-table-checksum/privs.t b/t/pt-table-checksum/privs.t
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..740c296e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/pt-table-checksum/privs.t
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+BEGIN {
+   die "The PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH environment variable is not set.\n"
+      unless $ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH} && -d $ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH};
+   unshift @INC, "$ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH}/lib";
+};
+
+use strict;
+use warnings FATAL => 'all';
+use English qw(-no_match_vars);
+use Test::More;
+
+# Hostnames make testing less accurate.  Tests need to see
+# that such-and-such happened on specific slave hosts, but
+# the sandbox servers are all on one host so all slaves have
+# the same hostname.
+$ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_TEST_USE_DSN_NAMES} = 1;
+
+use Data::Dumper;
+use PerconaTest;
+use Sandbox;
+
+# Fix @INC because pt-table-checksum uses subclass OobNibbleIterator.
+shift @INC;  # our unshift (above)
+shift @INC;  # PerconaTest's unshift
+require "$trunk/bin/pt-table-checksum";
+
+my $dp = new DSNParser(opts=>$dsn_opts);
+my $sb = new Sandbox(basedir => '/tmp', DSNParser => $dp);
+my $master_dbh = $sb->get_dbh_for('master');
+my $slave_dbh  = $sb->get_dbh_for('slave1');
+
+if ( !$master_dbh ) {
+   plan skip_all => 'Cannot connect to sandbox master';
+}
+elsif ( !$slave_dbh ) {
+   plan skip_all => 'Cannot connect to sandbox slave1';
+}
+elsif ( !@{$master_dbh->selectall_arrayref('show databases like "sakila"')} ) {
+   plan skip_all => 'sakila database is not loaded';
+}
+else {
+   plan tests => 2;
+}
+
+# The sandbox servers run with lock_wait_timeout=3 and it's not dynamic
+# so we need to specify --lock-wait-timeout=3 else the tool will die.
+my $master_dsn = 'h=127.1,P=12345';
+my @args       = (qw(--lock-wait-timeout 3));
+my $row;
+my $output;
+my $exit_status;
+my $sample  = "t/pt-table-checksum/samples/";
+
+# ############################################################################
+# --recursion-method=none to avoid SHOW SLAVE HOSTS
+# https://bugs.launchpad.net/percona-toolkit/+bug/987694
+# ############################################################################
+
+# Create percona.checksums because ro_checksum_user doesn't have the privs.
+pt_table_checksum::main(@args,
+   "$master_dsn,u=msandbox,p=msandbox",
+   qw(-t sakila.country --quiet --quiet));
+
+diag(`/tmp/12345/use -u root < $trunk/t/lib/samples/ro-checksum-user.sql`);
+PerconaTest::wait_for_table($slave_dbh, "mysql.tables_priv", "user='ro_checksum_user'");
+
+$output = output(
+   sub { $exit_status = pt_table_checksum::main(@args,
+      "$master_dsn,u=ro_checksum_user,p=msandbox",
+      # Comment out this line and the tests fail because ro_checksum_user
+      # doesn't have privs to SHOW SLAVE HOSTS.  This proves that
+      # --recursion-method none is working.
+      qw(--recursion-method none)
+   ) },
+   stderr => 1,
+);
+
+is(
+   $exit_status,
+   0,
+   "Read-only user (bug 987694): 0 exit"
+);
+
+like(
+   $output,
+   qr/ sakila.store$/m,
+   "Read-only user (bug 987694): checksummed rows"
+);
+
+diag(`/tmp/12345/use -u root -e "drop user 'ro_checksum_user'\@'%'"`);
+
+# #############################################################################
+# Done.
+# #############################################################################
+$sb->wipe_clean($master_dbh);
+exit;