2S,3S)-2-Benzyloxybutane-1,2,4-triol reacted with N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole to give a mixture of the expected 1,2-carbonate and the corresponding bis-carbonate. Im = 1H-imidazol-1-yl.Cyclic carbonates are widely used as protecting and activating groups [1-3]. They are more stable than esters under both acid and base hydrolysis conditions. The 1,2-or 1,3-dihydroxy moiety in triols is usually protected by treatment with an appreciable excess of N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole.leads to selective hydrolysis of the latter to hydroxy carbonate B [4].While studying the reaction of (2S,3S)-2-benzyloxybutane-1,2,4-triol (1) with N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole, we have found that cyclic carbonate 2 generated from triol 1 [5] undergoes intermolecular bis-acylation in situ. In the reaction of 1 with a slight excess of N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole we obtained a mixture of carbonate 2 and bis-carbonate 3 at a ratio of ~3 : 2.5 in an overall yield of 56% (Scheme 1). The formation of 3 may be rationalized by esterification of a probable intermediate, activated N-acyl imidazole 4, with alcohol 2.The following factors were taken into account while assigning the structures of 2 and 3. It is known