diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ def coreconfigitem(*args, **kwargs):
 
 # Registering actual config items
 
+coreconfigitem('patch', 'fuzz',
+    default=2,
+)
 coreconfigitem('ui', 'quiet',
     default=False,
 )
diff --git a/mercurial/patch.py b/mercurial/patch.py
--- a/mercurial/patch.py
+++ b/mercurial/patch.py
@@ -803,7 +803,7 @@ class patchfile(object):
         for x, s in enumerate(self.lines):
             self.hash.setdefault(s, []).append(x)
 
-        for fuzzlen in xrange(self.ui.configint("patch", "fuzz", 2) + 1):
+        for fuzzlen in xrange(self.ui.configint("patch", "fuzz") + 1):
             for toponly in [True, False]:
                 old, oldstart, new, newstart = h.fuzzit(fuzzlen, toponly)
                 oldstart = oldstart + self.offset + self.skew