diff --git a/Lib/test/test_thread.py b/Lib/test/test_thread.py
index ae9a7d9527f..413889ad226 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_thread.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_thread.py
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ def mywrite(self, *args):
             thread.start_new_thread(task, ())
             started.acquire()
             while thread._count() > c:
-                pass
+                time.sleep(0.01)
         self.assertIn("Traceback", stderr.getvalue())