diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 8eabd3e1b09..22541c2da60 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1008,6 +1008,10 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6181.  Fix .eclipse.templates/.classpath for avro and jets3t jar
     files.  (Carlos Valiente via szetszwo)
 
+    HADOOP-6196. Fix a bug in SequenceFile.Reader where syncing within the
+    header would cause the reader to read the sync marker as a record. (Jay
+    Booth via cdouglas)
+
 Release 0.20.1 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
index ae494f948ed..db77fa0ecfe 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/SequenceFile.java
@@ -1397,6 +1397,7 @@ public class SequenceFile {
     private byte[] syncCheck = new byte[SYNC_HASH_SIZE];
     private boolean syncSeen;
 
+    private long headerEnd;
     private long end;
     private int keyLength;
     private int recordLength;
@@ -1546,6 +1547,7 @@ public class SequenceFile {
       
       if (version > 1) {                          // if version > 1
         in.readFully(sync);                       // read sync bytes
+        headerEnd = in.getPos();                  // record end of header
       }
       
       // Initialize... *not* if this we are constructing a temporary Reader
@@ -2210,6 +2212,14 @@ public class SequenceFile {
         return;
       }
 
+      if (position < headerEnd) {
+        // seek directly to first record
+        in.seek(headerEnd);
+        // note the sync marker "seen" in the header
+        syncSeen = true;
+        return;
+      }
+
       try {
         seek(position+4);                         // skip escape
         in.readFully(syncCheck);
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestSequenceFileSync.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestSequenceFileSync.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..933ee29cfea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestSequenceFileSync.java
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.io;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Random;
+import java.net.URI;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+public class TestSequenceFileSync {
+  private static final int NUMRECORDS = 2000;
+  private static final int RECORDSIZE = 80;
+  private static final Random rand = new Random();
+
+  private final static String REC_FMT = "%d RECORDID %d : ";
+
+
+  private static void forOffset(SequenceFile.Reader reader,
+      IntWritable key, Text val, int iter, long off, int expectedRecord)
+      throws IOException {
+    val.clear();
+    reader.sync(off);
+    reader.next(key, val);
+    assertEquals(key.get(), expectedRecord);
+    final String test = String.format(REC_FMT, expectedRecord, expectedRecord);
+    assertEquals("Invalid value " + val, 0, val.find(test, 0));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testLowSyncpoint() throws IOException {
+    final Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    final FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    final Path path = new Path(System.getProperty("test.build.data", "/tmp"),
+      "sequencefile.sync.test");
+    final IntWritable input = new IntWritable();
+    final Text val = new Text();
+    SequenceFile.Writer writer = new SequenceFile.Writer(fs, conf, path,
+        IntWritable.class, Text.class);
+    try {
+      writeSequenceFile(writer, NUMRECORDS);
+      for (int i = 0; i < 5 ; i++) {
+       final SequenceFile.Reader reader =
+         new SequenceFile.Reader(fs, path, conf);
+       try {
+          forOffset(reader, input, val, i, 0, 0);
+          forOffset(reader, input, val, i, 65, 0);
+          forOffset(reader, input, val, i, 2000, 21);
+          forOffset(reader, input, val, i, 0, 0);
+        } finally {
+          reader.close();
+        }
+      }
+    } finally {
+      fs.delete(path, false);
+    }
+  }
+
+  public static void writeSequenceFile(SequenceFile.Writer writer,
+      int numRecords) throws IOException {
+    final IntWritable key = new IntWritable();
+    final Text val = new Text();
+    for (int numWritten = 0; numWritten < numRecords; ++numWritten) {
+      key.set(numWritten);
+      randomText(val, numWritten, RECORDSIZE);
+      writer.append(key, val);
+    }
+    writer.close();
+  }
+
+  static void randomText(Text val, int id, int recordSize) {
+    val.clear();
+    final StringBuilder ret = new StringBuilder(recordSize);
+    ret.append(String.format(REC_FMT, id, id));
+    recordSize -= ret.length();
+    for (int i = 0; i < recordSize; ++i) {
+      ret.append(rand.nextInt(9));
+    }
+    val.set(ret.toString());
+  }
+}