This is probably a L1 caching event.  When you put an entry in the cache, the entry is mapped to specific nodes in a cluster using a consistent hashing algorithm.  This means that key K could map on to caches A and B (or however many owners you have configured).  If you happen to have done the cache.put(K, V) on cache C , however, K still maps to A and B (and will be added to caches A and B with their proper lifespans), but it will also be put in cache C's L1 cache.