diff --git a/src/libcore/rand.rs b/src/libcore/rand.rs
index f6b7dfa568c28..32f77a533a67e 100644
--- a/src/libcore/rand.rs
+++ b/src/libcore/rand.rs
@@ -334,6 +334,13 @@ pub fn task_rng() -> Rng {
     }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Returns a random uint, using the task's based random number generator.
+ */
+pub fn random() -> uint {
+    task_rng().gen_uint()
+}
+
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 pub mod tests {
@@ -495,6 +502,12 @@ pub mod tests {
         assert r.shuffle(~[1, 1, 1]) == ~[1, 1, 1];
         assert r.gen_uint_range(0u, 1u) == 0u;
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    pub fn random() {
+        // not sure how to test this aside from just getting a number
+        let _n : uint = rand::random();
+    }
 }