Puppet 3.2.4: stack level too deep

I am working on a refactoring project for a large repository of custom puppet modules. This includes an upgrade from puppet 2.x to 3.2.4. When I finally hit critical mass and started testing some of the changes, I quickly ran into the following error:

Info: Retrieving plugin
Info: Loading facts in /etc/puppet/modules/base/lib/facter/elversion.rb
Info: Loading facts in /etc/puppet/modules/base/lib/facter/site.rb
Info: Loading facts in /var/lib/puppet/lib/facter/elversion.rb
Info: Loading facts in /var/lib/puppet/lib/facter/site.rb
Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: stack level too deep at /etc/puppet/manifests/nodes.pp:9 on node puppet
Warning: Not using cache on failed catalog
Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run

After looking through various puppet bug reports, I decided to try simplifying the problem. I narrowed the issue down to two classes, defined as such:

class base::includes { }

and

class prod_secure::base::includes inherits base::includes { }

A node that includes nothing but prod_secure::base::includes produces the error output listed above. The only possibly related warning that I see in puppet-lint is:

WARNING: class inherits across module namespaces on line 1

…but that's just a warning, and shouldn't crash puppet on an agent run, I wouldn't think. Any ideas? Is it possible that the namespacing scheme that I have set up unsupported by puppet?

UPDATE

I decided to take the testing a step further, and change the name of the inheriting class. The new definition is:

class prod_secure::base2::includes2 inherits base::includes { }

The result is the same… stack level too deep. It looks to me like this issue has nothing to do with namespacing.

UPDATE 2

During the previous round of debugging I missed one salient detail:

Wed Sep 11 11:25:09 -0400 2013 Puppet (info): Caching node for puppet
Wed Sep 11 11:25:09 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): importing '/etc/puppet/manifests/nodes.pp' in environment production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:09 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): importing '/etc/puppet/manifests/config_file.pp' in environment production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:10 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): importing '/etc/puppet/modules/prod_secure/manifests/base2/includes2.pp' in environment production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:10 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): Automatically imported prod_secure::base2::includes2 from prod_secure/base2/includes2 into production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:10 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): importing '/etc/puppet/modules/prod_secure/manifests/base/includes.pp' in environment production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:10 -0400 2013 Puppet (debug): Automatically imported prod_secure::base::includes from prod_secure/base/includes into production
Wed Sep 11 11:25:10 -0400 2013 Puppet (err): stack level too deep at /etc/puppet/manifests/nodes.pp:9 on node puppet
Wrapped exception:
stack level too deep

I can't say I'm sure why, but it was still trying to load prod_secure::base::includes, and that was the offending entry. After removing that file entirely, the test passed. I'm back to the namespacing theory…