diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 8419abeb97d..68f1e3f9c42 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -542,6 +542,9 @@ Release 0.23.6 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-4678. Running the Pentomino example with defaults throws
     java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException (Chris McConnell via harsh)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4925. The pentomino option parser may be buggy.
+    (Karthik Kambatla via harsh)
+
 Release 0.23.5 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-examples/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/examples/dancing/DistributedPentomino.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-examples/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/examples/dancing/DistributedPentomino.java
index 94c647711d9..e97d9c3c424 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-examples/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/examples/dancing/DistributedPentomino.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-examples/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/examples/dancing/DistributedPentomino.java
@@ -174,16 +174,16 @@ public class DistributedPentomino extends Configured implements Tool {
       return 2;
     }
     // check for passed parameters, otherwise use defaults
-    int width = PENT_WIDTH;
-    int height = PENT_HEIGHT;
-    int depth = PENT_DEPTH;
+    int width = conf.getInt(Pentomino.WIDTH, PENT_WIDTH);
+    int height = conf.getInt(Pentomino.HEIGHT, PENT_HEIGHT);
+    int depth = conf.getInt(Pentomino.DEPTH, PENT_DEPTH);
     for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {
       if (args[i].equalsIgnoreCase("-depth")) {
-          depth = Integer.parseInt(args[i++].trim());
+        depth = Integer.parseInt(args[++i].trim());
       } else if (args[i].equalsIgnoreCase("-height")) {
-	  height = Integer.parseInt(args[i++].trim());
+        height = Integer.parseInt(args[++i].trim());
       } else if (args[i].equalsIgnoreCase("-width") ) {
-	  width = Integer.parseInt(args[i++].trim()); 
+        width = Integer.parseInt(args[++i].trim());
       }
     }
     // now set the values within conf for M/R tasks to read, this