diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
index 04e740039f005..19c5cb9cecc64 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
@@ -3150,6 +3150,14 @@ object SQLConf {
     .booleanConf
     .createWithDefault(false)
 
+  val ENABLE_SUBDIRECTORY_SUPPORT_WITH_NON_PARTITIONED_TABLE =
+    buildConf("spark.sql.nonPartitionedTable.subdirectory.read.enabled")
+      .doc("When set to true, Spark SQL could read the files of " +
+        " Non-partitioned hive table from subdirectories under root path of table")
+      .version("3.2.0")
+      .booleanConf
+      .createWithDefault(false)
+
   /**
    * Holds information about keys that have been deprecated.
    *
@@ -3837,6 +3845,9 @@ class SQLConf extends Serializable with Logging {
 
   def legacyIntervalEnabled: Boolean = getConf(LEGACY_INTERVAL_ENABLED)
 
+  def nonPartitionedTableSubDirectoryReadSupport: Boolean =
+    getConf(ENABLE_SUBDIRECTORY_SUPPORT_WITH_NON_PARTITIONED_TABLE)
+
   def decorrelateInnerQueryEnabled: Boolean = getConf(SQLConf.DECORRELATE_INNER_QUERY_ENABLED)
 
   /** ********************** SQLConf functionality methods ************ */
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalog.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalog.scala
index e02589e5cad00..90793b7449742 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalog.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalog.scala
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import com.google.common.util.concurrent.Striped
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
 
 import org.apache.spark.SparkException
+import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkHadoopUtil
 import org.apache.spark.internal.Logging
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, SparkSession}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.{QualifiedTableName, TableIdentifier}
@@ -241,7 +242,7 @@ private[hive] class HiveMetastoreCatalog(sparkSession: SparkSession) extends Log
             LogicalRelation(
               DataSource(
                 sparkSession = sparkSession,
-                paths = rootPath.toString :: Nil,
+                paths = getDirectoryPathSeq(rootPath),
                 userSpecifiedSchema = Option(updatedTable.dataSchema),
                 bucketSpec = None,
                 options = options,
@@ -277,6 +278,18 @@ private[hive] class HiveMetastoreCatalog(sparkSession: SparkSession) extends Log
     result.copy(output = newOutput)
   }
 
+  private def getDirectoryPathSeq(rootPath: Path): Seq[String] = {
+    val enableSupportSubDirectories =
+      sparkSession.sessionState.conf.nonPartitionedTableSubDirectoryReadSupport
+
+    if (enableSupportSubDirectories) {
+      val fs = rootPath.getFileSystem(sparkSession.sessionState.newHadoopConf())
+      SparkHadoopUtil.get.listLeafDirStatuses(fs, rootPath).map(_.getPath.toString)
+    } else {
+      rootPath.toString :: Nil
+    }
+  }
+
   private def inferIfNeeded(
       relation: HiveTableRelation,
       options: Map[String, String],
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalogSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalogSuite.scala
index 1a6f6843d3911..3440b073fd168 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalogSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreCatalogSuite.scala
@@ -363,4 +363,30 @@ class DataSourceWithHiveMetastoreCatalogSuite
       }
     })
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-28098: allow reader could read files from subdirectories") {
+    withTempPath(dir => {
+      withTable("dirTest") {
+        withSQLConf(
+          "spark.sql.nonPartitionedTable.subdirectory.read.enabled" -> "true") {
+          val testData = java.util.Arrays.asList(Row(1), Row(2), Row(3), Row(4), Row(5))
+
+          val dataFrame = spark.sqlContext
+            .createDataFrame(testData, StructType(Seq(StructField("val", IntegerType))))
+
+          dataFrame
+            .coalesce(1)
+            .write
+            .mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+            .format("orc")
+            .save(s"${dir.getCanonicalPath}/sub1/sub2")
+
+          spark.sql("CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE dirTest (val INT)" +
+            s" STORED AS ORC LOCATION '${dir.toURI}'")
+
+          checkAnswer(spark.sql("select * from dirTest"), dataFrame)
+        }
+      }
+    })
+  }
 }