diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 1571a82a9e8..95e9a14e6a0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -193,6 +193,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6467. Improve the performance on HarFileSystem.listStatus(..).
     (mahadev via szetszwo)
 
+    HADOOP-6569. FsShell#cat should avoid calling unecessary getFileStatus
+    before opening a file to read. (hairong)
+
   BUG FIXES
 
     HADOOP-6293. Fix FsShell -text to work on filesystems other than the
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FsShell.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FsShell.java
index 8af692a1ef0..91fc0b7a8fe 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FsShell.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/FsShell.java
@@ -350,9 +350,6 @@ public class FsShell extends Configured implements Tool {
     new DelayedExceptionThrowing() {
       @Override
       void process(Path p, FileSystem srcFs) throws IOException {
-        if (srcFs.getFileStatus(p).isDir()) {
-          throw new IOException("Source must be a file.");
-        }
         printToStdout(srcFs.open(p));
       }
     }.globAndProcess(srcPattern, getSrcFileSystem(srcPattern, verifyChecksum));