diff --git a/source/org/jivesoftware/smack/PacketWriter.java b/source/org/jivesoftware/smack/PacketWriter.java
index abc00beea..0bec87aa9 100644
--- a/source/org/jivesoftware/smack/PacketWriter.java
+++ b/source/org/jivesoftware/smack/PacketWriter.java
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ class PacketWriter {
     private XMPPConnection connection;
     private LinkedList queue;
     private boolean done = false;
+    private int packetsWritten = 0;
 
     /**
      * Creates a new packet writer with the specified connection.
@@ -103,6 +104,15 @@ class PacketWriter {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns the number of packets written through this packet writer.
+     *
+     * @return the number of packets written.
+     */
+    public int getPacketsWritten() {
+        return packetsWritten;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Starts the packet writer thread and opens a connection to the server. The
      * packet writer will continue writing packets until {@link #shutdown} or an
@@ -152,6 +162,8 @@ class PacketWriter {
             while (!done) {
                 Packet packet = nextPacket();
                 writer.write(packet.toXML());
+                // Increment the count of packets written.
+                packetsWritten++;
                 writer.flush();
             }
             // Close the stream.