diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/object/DynamicTemplate.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/object/DynamicTemplate.java
index 87c72235b77..2b948650fc4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/object/DynamicTemplate.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/object/DynamicTemplate.java
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ public class DynamicTemplate {
             }
         }
 
-        if (match == null && pathMatch == null) {
-            throw new MapperParsingException("template must have match or path_match set");
+        if (match == null && pathMatch == null && matchMappingType == null) {
+            throw new MapperParsingException("template must have match, path_match or match_mapping_type set");
         }
         if (mapping == null) {
             throw new MapperParsingException("template must have mapping set");
@@ -202,17 +202,28 @@ public class DynamicTemplate {
 
     @Override
     public boolean equals(Object o) {
-        if (this == o) return true;
-        if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
+        if (this == o) {
+            return true;
+        }
+        if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) {
+            return false;
+        }
 
         DynamicTemplate that = (DynamicTemplate) o;
 
         // check if same matching, if so, replace the mapping
-        if (match != null ? !match.equals(that.match) : that.match != null) return false;
-        if (matchMappingType != null ? !matchMappingType.equals(that.matchMappingType) : that.matchMappingType != null)
+        if (match != null ? !match.equals(that.match) : that.match != null) {
             return false;
-        if (matchType != that.matchType) return false;
-        if (unmatch != null ? !unmatch.equals(that.unmatch) : that.unmatch != null) return false;
+        }
+        if (matchMappingType != null ? !matchMappingType.equals(that.matchMappingType) : that.matchMappingType != null) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        if (matchType != that.matchType) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        if (unmatch != null ? !unmatch.equals(that.unmatch) : that.unmatch != null) {
+            return false;
+        }
 
         return true;
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/dynamictemplate/simple/SimpleDynamicTemplatesTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/dynamictemplate/simple/SimpleDynamicTemplatesTests.java
index fdd183d65a1..f4dce29e02a 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/dynamictemplate/simple/SimpleDynamicTemplatesTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/dynamictemplate/simple/SimpleDynamicTemplatesTests.java
@@ -22,9 +22,13 @@ package org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.dynamictemplate.simple;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Document;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexableField;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesArray;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.DocumentFieldMappers;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.DocumentMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.FieldMappers;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperTestUtils;
+import org.hamcrest.Matchers;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 import static org.elasticsearch.common.io.Streams.copyToBytesFromClasspath;
@@ -37,6 +41,30 @@ import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
  */
 public class SimpleDynamicTemplatesTests {
 
+    @Test
+    public void testMatchTypeOnly() throws Exception {
+        XContentBuilder builder = JsonXContent.contentBuilder();
+        builder.startObject().startObject("person").startArray("dynamic_templates").startObject().startObject("test")
+                .field("match_mapping_type", "string")
+                .startObject("mapping").field("index", "no").endObject()
+                .endObject().endObject().endArray().endObject().endObject();
+        DocumentMapper docMapper = MapperTestUtils.newParser().parse(builder.string());
+        builder = JsonXContent.contentBuilder();
+        builder.startObject().field("_id", "1").field("s", "hello").field("l", 1).endObject();
+        docMapper.parse(builder.bytes());
+
+        DocumentFieldMappers mappers = docMapper.mappers();
+
+        assertThat(mappers.smartName("s"), Matchers.notNullValue());
+        assertThat(mappers.smartName("s").mapper().fieldType().indexed(), equalTo(false));
+
+        assertThat(mappers.smartName("l"), Matchers.notNullValue());
+        assertThat(mappers.smartName("l").mapper().fieldType().indexed(), equalTo(true));
+
+
+    }
+
+
     @Test
     public void testSimple() throws Exception {
         String mapping = copyToStringFromClasspath("/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/dynamictemplate/simple/test-mapping.json");