diff --git a/tools/show-profile-results.py b/tools/show-profile-results.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..9fac0ae404
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/show-profile-results.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+import sys
+import pstats
+
+'''
+This is a helper script to make it easy to show profile
+results after using a Python decorator.  It's meant to be
+a simple example that you can hack on, or better yet, you
+can find more advanced tools for showing profiler results.
+'''
+
+try:
+    fn = sys.argv[1]
+except:
+    print '''
+    Please supply a filename.  (If you use the profiled decorator,
+    the file will have a suffix of ".profile".)
+    '''
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+p = pstats.Stats(fn)
+p.strip_dirs().sort_stats('cumulative').print_stats(25)
+p.strip_dirs().sort_stats('time').print_stats(25)
+
diff --git a/zephyr/decorator.py b/zephyr/decorator.py
index 82cfa980ec..c5006a97bd 100644
--- a/zephyr/decorator.py
+++ b/zephyr/decorator.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ from zephyr.lib.rate_limiter import incr_ratelimit, is_ratelimited, \
 from functools import wraps
 import base64
 import logging
+import cProfile
 
 class _RespondAsynchronously(object):
     pass
@@ -416,3 +417,29 @@ def rate_limit(domain='all'):
             return func(request, *args, **kwargs)
         return wrapped_func
     return wrapper
+
+def profiled(func):
+    """
+    This decorator should obviously be used only in a dev environment.
+    It works best when surrounding a function that you expect to be
+    called once.  One strategy is to write a test case in zephyr/tests.py
+    and wrap the test case with the profiled decorator.
+
+    You can run a single test case like this:
+
+        # edit zephyr/tests.py and place @profiled above the test case below
+        ./tools/test-backend zephyr.RateLimitTests.test_ratelimit_decrease
+
+    Then view the results like this:
+
+        ./tools/show-profile-results.py test_ratelimit_decrease.profile
+
+    """
+    @wraps(func)
+    def wrapped_func(*args, **kwargs):
+        fn = func.__name__ + ".profile"
+        prof = cProfile.Profile()
+        retval = prof.runcall(func, *args, **kwargs)
+        prof.dump_stats(fn)
+        return retval
+    return wrapped_func
diff --git a/zephyr/tests.py b/zephyr/tests.py
index 99cee95899..8682da702e 100644
--- a/zephyr/tests.py
+++ b/zephyr/tests.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from zephyr.models import Message, UserProfile, Stream, Recipient, Subscription,
     get_display_recipient, Realm, Client, \
     PreregistrationUser, UserMessage
 from zephyr.tornadoviews import json_get_updates, api_get_messages
-from zephyr.decorator import RespondAsynchronously, RequestVariableConversionError
+from zephyr.decorator import RespondAsynchronously, RequestVariableConversionError, profiled
 from zephyr.lib.initial_password import initial_password
 from zephyr.lib.actions import do_send_message, gather_subscriptions, \
     create_stream_if_needed, do_add_subscription