diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
index 00b4c1827eaae4..23241505ba863c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
@@ -841,6 +841,8 @@ public ShortCircuitConf(Configuration conf) {
       shortCircuitStreamsCacheSize = conf.getInt(
           Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_KEY,
           Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_DEFAULT);
+      Preconditions.checkArgument(shortCircuitStreamsCacheSize >= 0,
+          Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_KEY + " can't be negative.");
       shortCircuitStreamsCacheExpiryMs = conf.getLong(
           Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_EXPIRY_MS_KEY,
           Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_EXPIRY_MS_DEFAULT);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/TestDfsClientConf.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/TestDfsClientConf.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..a10f0164d65f0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/TestDfsClientConf.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.impl;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
+
+public class TestDfsClientConf {
+
+  @Test
+  public void testNegativeShortCircuitStreamsCacheSize() {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setInt(
+        HdfsClientConfigKeys.Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_KEY, -1);
+
+    IllegalArgumentException exception = assertThrows(
+        IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> new DfsClientConf(conf));
+    assertEquals(
+        HdfsClientConfigKeys.Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_KEY
+            + " can't be negative.",
+        exception.getMessage());
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testZeroShortCircuitStreamsCacheSize() {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setInt(
+        HdfsClientConfigKeys.Read.ShortCircuit.STREAMS_CACHE_SIZE_KEY, 0);
+
+    DfsClientConf dfsClientConf = new DfsClientConf(conf);
+    assertEquals(0, dfsClientConf.getShortCircuitConf()
+        .getShortCircuitStreamsCacheSize());
+  }
+}