For account "" or "*" listtransactions reports transactions for "from" arguments way past the last actual transactions available.
Test of high "from" numbers:
bitcoind listtransactions "" 1 9999999 [ { "account" : "", "category" : "generate", "amount" : 50.00000000, "confirmations" : 897, "txid" : "486dfdb3b9f61b4fa5b8b98c388e5b4b71f05a85371dd653aafe23d93aa56f08", "time" : 1307918798 } ]
This is not actually transaction 9999999, but rather transaction 9:
bitcoind listtransactions "" 1 9 [ { "account" : "", "category" : "generate", "amount" : 50.00000000, "confirmations" : 897, "txid" : "486dfdb3b9f61b4fa5b8b98c388e5b4b71f05a85371dd653aafe23d93aa56f08", "time" : 1307918798 } ]
I realize the transactions are not actually numbered, but this behavior is unexpected. It does not seem to happen with other accounts than "" and "*".