diff --git a/synapse/storage/_base.py b/synapse/storage/_base.py
index 9214e0c49..1ea39bc0a 100644
--- a/synapse/storage/_base.py
+++ b/synapse/storage/_base.py
@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ class SQLBaseStore(object):
 
     def _simple_select_one_txn(self, txn, table, keyvalues, retcols,
                                allow_none=False):
-        select_sql = "SELECT %s FROM %s WHERE %s ORDER BY rowid asc" % (
+        select_sql = "SELECT %s FROM %s WHERE %s" % (
             ", ".join(retcols),
             table,
             " AND ".join("%s = ?" % (k) for k in keyvalues)