diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
index ff8c9a6c1..6aef874e2 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIishTest.java
@@ -83,6 +83,16 @@ public class URIishTest extends TestCase {
 		assertEquals(u, new URIish(str));
 	}
 
+	public void testRelativePath() throws Exception {
+		final String str = "../../foo/bar";
+		URIish u = new URIish(str);
+		assertNull(u.getScheme());
+		assertFalse(u.isRemote());
+		assertEquals(str, u.getPath());
+		assertEquals(str, u.toString());
+		assertEquals(u, new URIish(str));
+	}
+
 	public void testUNC() throws Exception {
 		final String str = "\\\\some\\place";
 		URIish u = new URIish(str);
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
index 3f533281b..44160c0d1 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/URIish.java
@@ -64,7 +64,12 @@ public class URIish implements Serializable {
 	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
 	private static final Pattern FULL_URI = Pattern
-			.compile("^(?:([a-z][a-z0-9+-]+)://(?:([^/]+?)(?::([^/]+?))?@)?(?:([^/]+?))?(?::(\\d+))?)?((?:[A-Za-z]:)?/.+)$");
+			.compile("^(?:([a-z][a-z0-9+-]+)://" // optional http://
+					+ "(?:([^/]+?)(?::([^/]+?))?@)?" // optional user:password@
+					+ "(?:([^/]+?))?(?::(\\d+))?)?" // optional example.com:1337
+					+ "((?:[A-Za-z]:)?" // optional drive-letter:
+					+ "(?:\\.\\.)?" // optionally a relative path
+					+"/.+)$"); // /anything
 
 	private static final Pattern SCP_URI = Pattern
 			.compile("^(?:([^@]+?)@)?([^:]+?):(.+)$");