diff --git a/schema_salad/ref_resolver.py b/schema_salad/ref_resolver.py
index 1a71e419..15bb835f 100644
--- a/schema_salad/ref_resolver.py
+++ b/schema_salad/ref_resolver.py
@@ -116,6 +116,9 @@ def fetch_text(self, url):
             raise ValueError('Unsupported scheme in url: %s' % url)
 
     def check_exists(self, url):  # type: (unicode) -> bool
+        if url in self.cache:
+            return True
+
         split = urlparse.urlsplit(url)
         scheme, path = split.scheme, split.path
 
diff --git a/schema_salad/tests/test_fetch.py b/schema_salad/tests/test_fetch.py
index 9b615086..7c74a64d 100644
--- a/schema_salad/tests/test_fetch.py
+++ b/schema_salad/tests/test_fetch.py
@@ -35,3 +35,11 @@ def check_exists(self, url):  # type: (unicode) -> bool
         with self.assertRaises(RuntimeError):
             loader.resolve_ref("bar.txt")
         self.assertFalse(loader.check_exists("bar.txt"))
+
+    def test_cache(self):
+        loader = schema_salad.ref_resolver.Loader({})
+        foo = "file://%s/foo.txt" % os.getcwd()
+        loader.cache.update({foo: "hello: foo"})
+        print loader.cache
+        self.assertEqual({"hello": "foo"}, loader.resolve_ref("foo.txt")[0])
+        self.assertTrue(loader.check_exists(foo))