diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
index f67ed51b226..389b1ec89b6 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
@@ -439,13 +439,14 @@ public class InternalSearchHit implements SearchHit {
             builder.field("_shard", shard.shardId());
             builder.field("_node", shard.nodeIdText());
         }
-        if (shard != null) {
-            builder.field(Fields._INDEX, shard.indexText());
-        }
-        builder.field(Fields._TYPE, type);
-        builder.field(Fields._ID, id);
         if (nestedIdentity != null) {
             nestedIdentity.toXContent(builder, params);
+        } else {
+            if (shard != null) {
+                builder.field(Fields._INDEX, shard.indexText());
+            }
+            builder.field(Fields._TYPE, type);
+            builder.field(Fields._ID, id);
         }
         if (version != -1) {
             builder.field(Fields._VERSION, version);
diff --git a/docs/reference/migration/migrate_5_0/search.asciidoc b/docs/reference/migration/migrate_5_0/search.asciidoc
index bb42bc20de5..dd91089fcad 100644
--- a/docs/reference/migration/migrate_5_0/search.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/migration/migrate_5_0/search.asciidoc
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ with inner hits defined inside the query dsl.
 * Source filtering for inner hits inside nested queries requires full field names instead of relative field names.
 This is now consistent for source filtering on other places in the search API.
 
+* Nested inner hits will now no longer include `_index`, `_type` and `_id` keys. For nested inner hits these values
+are always the same as the `_index`, `_type` and `_id` keys of the root search hit.
+
 ==== Query Profiler
 
 In the response for profiling queries, the `query_type` has been renamed to `type` and `lucene` has been renamed to
diff --git a/docs/reference/search/request/inner-hits.asciidoc b/docs/reference/search/request/inner-hits.asciidoc
index 7fe200292a9..345bc9abde2 100644
--- a/docs/reference/search/request/inner-hits.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/search/request/inner-hits.asciidoc
@@ -118,8 +118,6 @@ An example of a response snippet that could be generated from the above search r
                  "total": ...,
                  "hits": [
                     {
-                       "_type": "question",
-                       "_id": "1",
                        "_nested": {
                           "field": "comments",
                           "offset": 2
diff --git a/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.inner_hits/10_basic.yaml b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.inner_hits/10_basic.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..66b36b58bb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rest-api-spec/src/main/resources/rest-api-spec/test/search.inner_hits/10_basic.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+---
+setup:
+  - do:
+      indices.create:
+        index: test
+        body:
+            mappings:
+              type_1: {
+                properties: {
+                  nested_field : {
+                    type: nested
+                  }
+                }
+              }
+              type_2: {}
+              type_3: {
+                _parent: {
+                  type: type_2
+                }
+              }
+
+---
+"Nested inner hits":
+    - do:
+        index:
+          index: test
+          type:  type_1
+          id:    1
+          body:  {
+            "nested_field" : [
+              {
+                "foo": "bar"
+              }
+            ]
+          }
+
+    - do:
+        indices.refresh: {}
+
+    - do:
+        search:
+          body: { "query" : { "nested" : { "path" : "nested_field", "query" : { "match_all" : {} }, "inner_hits" : {} } } }
+    - match: { hits.total: 1 }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._index: "test" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._type: "type_1" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._id: "1" }
+    - is_false: hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._index
+    - is_false: hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._type
+    - is_false: hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._id
+    - match: { hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._nested.field: "nested_field" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._nested.offset: 0 }
+    - is_false: hits.hits.0.inner_hits.nested_field.hits.hits.0._nested.child
+
+---
+"Parent/child inner hits":
+    - do:
+        index:
+          index: test
+          type:  type_2
+          id:    1
+          body:  {"foo": "bar"}
+
+    - do:
+        index:
+          index: test
+          type:  type_3
+          id:    1
+          parent: 1
+          body:  {"bar": "baz"}
+
+    - do:
+        indices.refresh: {}
+
+    - do:
+        search:
+          body: { "query" : { "has_child" : { "type" : "type_3", "query" : { "match_all" : {} }, "inner_hits" : {} } } }
+    - match: { hits.total: 1 }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._index: "test" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._type: "type_2" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0._id: "1" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0.inner_hits.type_3.hits.hits.0._index: "test" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0.inner_hits.type_3.hits.hits.0._type: "type_3" }
+    - match: { hits.hits.0.inner_hits.type_3.hits.hits.0._id: "1" }
+    - is_false: hits.hits.0.inner_hits.type_3.hits.hits.0._nested