Index: src/core.js
===================================================================
--- src/core.js	(revision 5084)
+++ src/core.js	(working copy)
@@ -692,12 +692,13 @@
 			windowData :
 			elem;
 
-		var id = elem[ expando ];
+		var id = elem[ expando ], ret;
 
 		// If we want to remove a specific section of the element's data
 		if ( name ) {
 			if ( jQuery.cache[ id ] ) {
 				// Remove the section of cache data
+				ret = jQuery.cache[ id ][ name ];
 				delete jQuery.cache[ id ][ name ];
 
 				// If we've removed all the data, remove the element's cache
@@ -725,6 +726,7 @@
 			// Completely remove the data cache
 			delete jQuery.cache[ id ];
 		}
+		return ret;
 	},
 
 	// args is for internal usage only