diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
index f0769c12373..92bb99ee9d7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options.ChecksumOpt;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.ParentNotDirectoryException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.QuotaUsage;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.RemoteIterator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StorageType;
@@ -1620,7 +1621,8 @@ public boolean delete(String src, boolean recursive) throws IOException {
           FileNotFoundException.class,
           SafeModeException.class,
           UnresolvedPathException.class,
-          SnapshotAccessControlException.class);
+          SnapshotAccessControlException.class,
+          PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException.class);
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/ClientProtocol.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/ClientProtocol.java
index fbef0373614..0d77037d9d8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/ClientProtocol.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocol/ClientProtocol.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
 import org.apache.hadoop.crypto.CryptoProtocolVersion;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.BatchedRemoteIterator.BatchedEntries;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.AddBlockFlag;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.CacheFlag;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.ContentSummary;
@@ -625,6 +626,8 @@ boolean truncate(String src, long newLength, String clientName)
    * @throws org.apache.hadoop.fs.UnresolvedLinkException If <code>src</code>
    *           contains a symlink
    * @throws SnapshotAccessControlException if path is in RO snapshot
+   * @throws PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException if path is a non-empty directory
+   *           and <code>recursive</code> is set to false
    * @throws IOException If an I/O error occurred
    */
   @AtMostOnce
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
index 823c747a050..072ee9fcfd1 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.MD5MD5CRC32FileChecksum;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Options.ChecksumOpt;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.RemoteIterator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StorageStatistics.LongStatistic;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.StorageType;
@@ -571,6 +572,22 @@ public void testDFSClient() throws Exception {
         in.close();
         fs.close();
       }
+
+      {
+        // Test PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException while deleting non-empty dir
+        FileSystem fs = cluster.getFileSystem();
+        fs.mkdirs(new Path("/test/nonEmptyDir"));
+        fs.create(new Path("/tmp/nonEmptyDir/emptyFile")).close();
+        try {
+          fs.delete(new Path("/tmp/nonEmptyDir"), false);
+          Assert.fail("Expecting PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException");
+        } catch (PathIsNotEmptyDirectoryException ex) {
+          // This is the proper exception to catch; move on.
+        }
+        Assert.assertTrue(fs.exists(new Path("/test/nonEmptyDir")));
+        fs.delete(new Path("/tmp/nonEmptyDir"), true);
+      }
+
     }
     finally {
       if (cluster != null) {cluster.shutdown();}