diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5187120f..f4a30653 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+  - add caching of requested paths to _assemble_plugin_filepath() (messju)
   - fix handling of comments inside {php}- and {literal}-blocks (messju)
   - fix bug handling triple-quotes in config-files (BRDude, messju)
   - change default of request_use_auto_globals to true - $_SERVER is
diff --git a/libs/core/core.assemble_plugin_filepath.php b/libs/core/core.assemble_plugin_filepath.php
index ec44f8e4..c0d9d866 100644
--- a/libs/core/core.assemble_plugin_filepath.php
+++ b/libs/core/core.assemble_plugin_filepath.php
@@ -14,8 +14,12 @@
  */
 function smarty_core_assemble_plugin_filepath($params, &$smarty)
 {
+    static $_filepaths_cache = array();
 
     $_plugin_filename = $params['type'] . '.' . $params['name'] . '.php';
+    if (isset($_filepaths_cache[$_plugin_filename])) {
+        return $_filepaths_cache[$_plugin_filename];
+    }
     $_return = false;
 
     foreach ((array)$smarty->plugins_dir as $_plugin_dir) {
@@ -53,7 +57,7 @@ function smarty_core_assemble_plugin_filepath($params, &$smarty)
             }
         }
     }
-
+    $_filepaths_cache[$_plugin_filename] = $_return;
     return $_return;
 }