diff --git a/examples/discovery.py b/examples/discovery.py
index 2b2731e..f3ca021 100644
--- a/examples/discovery.py
+++ b/examples/discovery.py
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ def device_discovered(self, device):
         print("[%s] Discovered, alias = %s" % (device.mac_address, device.alias()))
 
 manager = AnyDeviceManager(adapter_name='hci0')
-manager.start_discovery()
+manager.start_discovery(timeout=10000) # 10 seconds
 manager.run()
diff --git a/gatt/gatt_linux.py b/gatt/gatt_linux.py
index 5fdb9d7..ea0f6a1 100644
--- a/gatt/gatt_linux.py
+++ b/gatt/gatt_linux.py
@@ -124,11 +124,14 @@ def devices(self):
         self.update_devices()
         return self._devices.values()
 
-    def start_discovery(self, service_uuids=[]):
+    def start_discovery(self, service_uuids=[], timeout=10000):
         """Starts a discovery for BLE devices with given service UUIDs.
 
         :param service_uuids: Filters the search to only return devices with given UUIDs.
+        :param timeout: Stops discovery after a timeout (in milliseconds). If set to 0, no timeout is used.
         """
+        if timeout > 0:
+            GObject.timeout_add(timeout, self.stop)
 
         discovery_filter = {'Transport': 'le'}
         if service_uuids:  # D-Bus doesn't like empty lists, it needs to guess the type