checked that and can't reproduce. see attached files. the output is:
[ded@breeze tmp]$ lua5.1 nomodule.lua
in module1 1st time table: 0x1ddb3d0
in module1 2nd time table: 0x1de4840
in main program 1st time table: 0x1de30e0
in module1 1st time table: 0x1de4840
in module1 2nd time table: 0x1de4ad0
in main program 2nd time table: 0x1de5410
so that it _does_ work as expected... wonder why in your case it doesn't
Sincerely,
Volodymyr