diff --git a/core/modules/utils/utils.js b/core/modules/utils/utils.js
index d99b3bd33..27e2a800e 100644
--- a/core/modules/utils/utils.js
+++ b/core/modules/utils/utils.js
@@ -402,4 +402,15 @@ exports.getAnimationDuration = function() {
 	return parseInt($tw.wiki.getTiddlerText("$:/config/AnimationDuration","400"),10);
 };
 
+/*
+Hash a string to a number
+Derived from http://stackoverflow.com/a/15710692
+*/
+exports.hashString = function(str) {
+	return str.split("").reduce(function(a,b) {
+		a = ((a << 5) - a) + b.charCodeAt(0);
+		return a & a;
+	},0);
+};
+
 })();
diff --git a/core/modules/widgets/widget.js b/core/modules/widgets/widget.js
index b892a6390..481df4769 100755
--- a/core/modules/widgets/widget.js
+++ b/core/modules/widgets/widget.js
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ Widget.prototype.hasVariable = function(name,value) {
 };
 
 /*
-Construct a qualifying string based on concatenating the values of a given variable in the parent chain
+Construct a qualifying string based on a hash of concatenating the values of a given variable in the parent chain
 */
 Widget.prototype.getStateQualifier = function(name) {
 	name = name || "transclusion";
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ Widget.prototype.getStateQualifier = function(name) {
 		}
 		node = node.parentWidget;
 	}
-	return output.join("");
+	return "{" + $tw.utils.hashString(output.join("")) + "}";
 };
 
 /*