diff --git a/src/core/RandomVariables.jl b/src/core/RandomVariables.jl
index 5c8d84677..1876e3f79 100644
--- a/src/core/RandomVariables.jl
+++ b/src/core/RandomVariables.jl
@@ -76,8 +76,8 @@ const VarInfo = AbstractVarInfo
 
 function Turing.runmodel!(model::Model, vi::AbstractVarInfo, spl::AbstractSampler = SampleFromPrior())
     setlogp!(vi, zero(Float64))
-    if spl isa Sampler && isdefined(spl.info, :eval_num)
-        spl.info.eval_num += 1
+    if spl isa Sampler && haskey(spl.info, :eval_num)
+        spl.info[:eval_num] += 1
     end
     model(vi, spl)
     return vi
diff --git a/test/core/RandomVariables.jl b/test/core/RandomVariables.jl
index c84e2ac17..4c0e0083c 100644
--- a/test/core/RandomVariables.jl
+++ b/test/core/RandomVariables.jl
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using Turing, Random
-using Turing: Selector, reconstruct, invlink, CACHERESET, SampleFromPrior
+using Turing: Selector, reconstruct, invlink, CACHERESET, 
+    SampleFromPrior, Sampler, runmodel!
 using Turing.RandomVariables
 using Turing.RandomVariables: uid, cuid, getvals, getidcs,
     set_retained_vns_del_by_spl!, is_flagged, 
@@ -13,6 +14,20 @@ i, j, k = 1, 2, 3
 include("../test_utils/AllUtils.jl")
 
 @testset "RandomVariables.jl" begin
+    @turing_testset "runmodel!" begin
+        @model testmodel() = begin
+            x ~ Normal()
+        end
+        alg = HMC(1000, 0.1, 5)
+        spl = Sampler(alg)
+        vi = VarInfo()
+        m = testmodel()
+        m(vi)
+        runmodel!(m, vi, spl)
+        @test spl.info[:eval_num] == 1
+        runmodel!(m, vi, spl)
+        @test spl.info[:eval_num] == 2
+    end
     @turing_testset "flags" begin
         vi = VarInfo()
         vn_x = VarName(gensym(), :x, "", 1)