During repair of an I-SceI endonuclease-triggered double-stranded DNA break (DSB) in Arabidopsis thaliana, Wei et al. detected small RNAs corresponding to regions surrounding the DSB. The production of these small RNAs and the repair efficiency were attenuated in plants that were deficient for components of the RNAi machinery, suggesting an active role for small RNA processing in the repair; similar results were obtained in human cells. The precise molecular details and relevance for non-I-SceI DNA damage remain to be determined.