diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/cli/SyncCommand.java b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/cli/SyncCommand.java
index f37e6420b11..d904b298151 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/cli/SyncCommand.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/cli/SyncCommand.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.cli.ParseException;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.Parser;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.PosixParser;
+import org.apache.zookeeper.KeeperException;
 
 /**
  * sync command for cli
@@ -68,6 +69,8 @@ public boolean exec() throws CliException {
             int resultCode = cf.get(SYNC_TIMEOUT, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
             if (resultCode == 0) {
                 out.println("Sync is OK");
+            } else if (resultCode == KeeperException.Code.NONODE.intValue()) {
+                throw new KeeperException.NoNodeException(path);
             } else {
                 out.println("Sync has failed. rc=" + resultCode);
             }
@@ -76,7 +79,7 @@ public boolean exec() throws CliException {
         } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
             Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
             throw new CliWrapperException(ie);
-        } catch (TimeoutException | ExecutionException ex) {
+        } catch (TimeoutException | ExecutionException | KeeperException ex) {
             throw new CliWrapperException(ex);
         }
 
diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/FinalRequestProcessor.java b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/FinalRequestProcessor.java
index 9ffde55c10c..643791b98f7 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/FinalRequestProcessor.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/FinalRequestProcessor.java
@@ -336,7 +336,12 @@ public void processRequest(Request request) {
                 lastOp = "SYNC";
                 SyncRequest syncRequest = new SyncRequest();
                 ByteBufferInputStream.byteBuffer2Record(request.request, syncRequest);
-                rsp = new SyncResponse(syncRequest.getPath());
+                path = syncRequest.getPath();
+                DataNode n = zks.getZKDatabase().getNode(path);
+                if (n == null) {
+                    throw new KeeperException.NoNodeException();
+                }
+                rsp = new SyncResponse(path);
                 requestPathMetricsCollector.registerRequest(request.type, syncRequest.getPath());
                 break;
             }
diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/test/java/org/apache/zookeeper/ZooKeeperTest.java b/zookeeper-server/src/test/java/org/apache/zookeeper/ZooKeeperTest.java
index d19f627e069..83d84c51c58 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/test/java/org/apache/zookeeper/ZooKeeperTest.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/test/java/org/apache/zookeeper/ZooKeeperTest.java
@@ -691,4 +691,18 @@ public void testSyncCommand() throws Exception {
         runCommandExpect(cmd, expected);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testSyncCommandFailure() throws Exception {
+        final ZooKeeper zk = createClient();
+        final SyncCommand cmd = new SyncCommand();
+        cmd.setZk(zk);
+        cmd.parse("sync /dddd".split(" "));
+        try {
+            runCommandExpect(cmd, new ArrayList<String>());
+            fail("Command did not fail, even the path does not exist.");
+        } catch (CliWrapperException e) {
+            assertEquals(KeeperException.Code.NONODE, ((KeeperException) e.getCause()).code());
+            assertEquals("Node does not exist: /dddd", e.getMessage());
+        }
+    }
 }