This is a Self-Ref test case for Ebean ORM. Please create a package named com.avaje.tests.model.selfref, and put Customer.java under that. Please put TestTextJsonSelfRef.java under com.avaje.tests.text.json package.

Customer.java

package com.avaje.tests.model.selfref;

import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.JoinColumn;
import javax.persistence.ManyToOne;
import javax.persistence.Table;

@Entity
@Table(name="self_ref_customer")
public class Customer {

    @Id
    Long id;


    String name;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name = "referred_by_id")
    Customer referredBy;

    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(Long id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public Customer getReferredBy() {
        return referredBy;
    }

    public void setReferredBy(Customer referredBy) {
        this.referredBy = referredBy;
    }

}

TestTextJsonSelfRef.java

package com.avaje.tests.text.json;

import java.util.List;

import junit.framework.Assert;

import org.junit.Test;

import com.avaje.ebean.BaseTestCase;
import com.avaje.ebean.Ebean;
import com.avaje.ebean.TxRunnable;
import com.avaje.tests.model.selfref.Customer;

public class TestTextJsonSelfRef extends BaseTestCase {

    @Test
    public void test() {

        Ebean.execute(new TxRunnable() {
            public void run() {

                if (Ebean.find(Customer.class).findRowCount() == 0) {
                    Customer c1 = new Customer();
                    c1.setName("Foo");
                    c1.setReferredBy(c1);

                    Customer c2 = new Customer();
                    c2.setName("Bar");
                    c2.setReferredBy(c1);

                    Customer c3 = new Customer();
                    c3.setName("baz");
                    c3.setReferredBy(c1);

                    Ebean.save(c1);
                    Ebean.save(c2);
                    Ebean.save(c3);
                }
            }
        });

        List<Customer> customers = Ebean.find(Customer.class).orderBy("id desc").findList();
        System.out.println("Customers: " + Ebean.createJsonContext().toJsonString(customers));

        Assert.assertEquals(
                "[{\"id\":3,\"name\":\"baz\",\"referredBy\":{\"id\":1}},{\"id\":2,\"name\":\"Bar\",\"referredBy\":{\"id\":1}},{\"id\":1,\"name\":\"Foo\",\"referredBy\":{\"id\":1}}]",
                Ebean.createJsonContext().toJsonString(customers));
    }

}

Expected result:
[{"id":3,"name":"baz","referredBy":{"id":1}},{"id":2,"name":"Bar","referredBy":{"id":1}},{"id":1,"name":"Foo","referredBy":{"id":1}}]

Actual result:
[{"id":3,"name":"baz","referredBy":{"id":1}},{"id":2,"name":"Bar","referredBy":{"id":1}},{"id":1}]

Thanks Peter. I'll look to pull that test in tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure I follow what the issue is and your suggested fix. Ta.