diff --git a/docs/topics/db/transactions.txt b/docs/topics/db/transactions.txt
index 5fb66ca684..66ef6d42e9 100644
--- a/docs/topics/db/transactions.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/db/transactions.txt
@@ -492,8 +492,8 @@ you can roll back the single offending operation, rather than the entire
 transaction. For example::
 
     a.save() # Succeeds, and never undone by savepoint rollback
+    sid = transaction.savepoint()
     try:
-        sid = transaction.savepoint()
         b.save() # Could throw exception
         transaction.savepoint_commit(sid)
     except IntegrityError: