diff --git a/R/kfold-helpers.R b/R/kfold-helpers.R
index ec2c4513..f29b509c 100644
--- a/R/kfold-helpers.R
+++ b/R/kfold-helpers.R
@@ -84,7 +84,12 @@ kfold_split_stratified <- function(K = 10, x = NULL) {
   N <- length(x)
   xids <- numeric()
   for (l in 1:Nlev) {
-      xids <- c(xids, sample(which(x==l)))
+    idx <- which(x == l)
+    if (length(idx) > 1) {
+      xids <- c(xids, sample(idx))
+    } else {
+      xids <- c(xids, idx)
+    }
   }
   bins <- rep(NA, N)
   bins[xids] <- rep(1:K, ceiling(N/K))[1:N]
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_kfold_helpers.R b/tests/testthat/test_kfold_helpers.R
index 2e1a63dd..c613cafa 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_kfold_helpers.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_kfold_helpers.R
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ test_that("kfold_split_stratified works", {
   y <- mtcars$cyl
   fold_strat <- kfold_split_stratified(10, y)
   expect_equal(range(table(fold_strat)), c(3, 4))
+
+  # test when a group has 1 observation
+  # https://github.com/stan-dev/loo/issues/277
+  y <- rep(c(1, 2, 3), times = c(20, 40, 1))
+  expect_silent(fold_strat <- kfold_split_stratified(5, y)) # used to be a warning before fixing issue #277
+  tab <- table(fold_strat, y)
+  expect_equal(tab[1, ], c("1" = 4, "2" = 8, "3" = 1))
+  for (i in 2:nrow(tab)) expect_equal(tab[i, ], c("1" = 4, "2" = 8, "3" = 0))
 })
 
 test_that("kfold_split_grouped works", {