diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index f86b900a613..13e63ba605e 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -152,6 +152,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-3823: Fix 'bq' parsing in edismax.  Please note that this required 
   reverting the negative boost support added by SOLR-3278 (hossman)
 
+* SOLR-3827: Fix shareSchema=true in solr.xml 
+  (Tomás Fernández Löbbe via hossman)
+
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
index 7b52ce56bfb..c8d870cc823 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
@@ -837,7 +837,7 @@ public class CoreContainer
     
       IndexSchema schema = null;
       if (indexSchemaCache != null) {
-        if (zkController != null) {
+        if (zkController == null) {
           File schemaFile = new File(dcore.getSchemaName());
           if (!schemaFile.isAbsolute()) {
             schemaFile = new File(solrLoader.getInstanceDir() + "conf"
@@ -1435,6 +1435,10 @@ public class CoreContainer
   public ZkController getZkController() {
     return zkController;
   }
+  
+  public boolean isShareSchema() {
+    return shareSchema;
+  }
 
   /** The default ShardHandlerFactory used to communicate with other solr instances */
   public ShardHandlerFactory getShardHandlerFactory() {
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/solr.xml b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/solr.xml
index 3045891fe29..e2953442f4e 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/solr.xml
+++ b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/solr.xml
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
   adminPath: RequestHandler path to manage cores.  
     If 'null' (or absent), cores will not be manageable via request handler
   -->
-  <cores adminPath="/admin/cores" defaultCoreName="collection1" host="127.0.0.1" hostPort="${hostPort:8983}" hostContext="solr" zkClientTimeout="8000" numShards="${numShards:3}">
+  <cores adminPath="/admin/cores" defaultCoreName="collection1" host="127.0.0.1" hostPort="${hostPort:8983}" hostContext="solr" zkClientTimeout="8000" numShards="${numShards:3}" shareSchema="${shareSchema:false}">
     <core name="collection1" instanceDir="collection1" shard="${shard:}" collection="${collection:collection1}" config="${solrconfig:solrconfig.xml}" schema="${schema:schema.xml}"/>
   </cores>
 </solr>
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
index 6a676b1d0a9..0a59977ee23 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
@@ -40,7 +40,41 @@ public class TestCoreContainer extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
   public static void beforeClass() throws Exception {
     initCore("solrconfig.xml", "schema.xml");
   }
-  
+
+
+  public void testShareSchema() throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
+    final File workDir = new File(TEMP_DIR, this.getClass().getName());
+
+    if (workDir.exists()) {
+      FileUtils.deleteDirectory(workDir);
+    }
+    assertTrue("Failed to mkdirs workDir", workDir.mkdirs());
+    
+    String solrHome = SolrResourceLoader.locateSolrHome();
+    File fconf = new File(solrHome, "solr.xml");
+
+    final CoreContainer cores = new CoreContainer(solrHome);
+    System.setProperty("shareSchema", "true");
+    cores.load(solrHome, fconf);
+    try {
+      cores.setPersistent(false);
+      assertTrue(cores.isShareSchema());
+      
+      CoreDescriptor descriptor1 = new CoreDescriptor(cores, "core1", "./collection1");
+      SolrCore core1 = cores.create(descriptor1);
+      
+      CoreDescriptor descriptor2 = new CoreDescriptor(cores, "core2", "./collection1");
+      SolrCore core2 = cores.create(descriptor2);
+      
+      assertSame(core1.getSchema(), core2.getSchema());
+      
+      core1.close();
+      core2.close();
+    } finally {
+      cores.shutdown();
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testPersist() throws Exception {
     final File workDir = new File(TEMP_DIR, this.getClass().getName()