An unexpected migration of a ninhydrin carbon bearing a phenolic subunit has been observed when phenolic adducts of ninhydrin reacted with 2-aminophenol in butan-1-ol at the reflux temperature. The products were unambiguously assigned as 2-(1,3-dioxoisoindolin-2-yl)phenyl benzoates on the basis of NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallographic analysis.