diff --git a/hphp/runtime/ext/std/ext_std_file.cpp b/hphp/runtime/ext/std/ext_std_file.cpp
index bb28b36cb92a75..e4357544757ecb 100644
--- a/hphp/runtime/ext/std/ext_std_file.cpp
+++ b/hphp/runtime/ext/std/ext_std_file.cpp
@@ -193,7 +193,15 @@ static int accessSyscall(
         return -1;
       }
     }
-    return ::access(File::TranslatePathWithFileCache(path).data(), mode);
+    String filepath = path;
+    if (path.charAt(0) != '/') {
+      String cwd = g_context->getCwd();
+      filepath = cwd + "/" + path;
+      if (!cwd.empty() && cwd[cwd.length() - 1] == '/') {
+        filepath = cwd + path;
+      }
+      return ::access(filepath.data(),mode);
+    }
   }
   return w->access(uri_or_path, mode);
 }
diff --git a/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php b/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..ebfbcf121abb48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?php
+  error_reporting(-1);
+  $dir = "hhvm_file_exists_test";
+  mkdir($dir);
+  file_put_contents($dir."/a.txt","test");
+  var_dump(file_exists($dir."/b/../a.txt"));
+  unlink($dir."/a.txt");
+  rmdir($dir);
+?>
diff --git a/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php.expectf b/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php.expectf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..5c0c0681d9c1e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hphp/test/slow/file/relative_path.php.expectf
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+bool(false)