Index: core/xwiki-core/src/main/java/com/xpn/xwiki/doc/DefaultDocumentAccessBridge.java
===================================================================
--- core/xwiki-core/src/main/java/com/xpn/xwiki/doc/DefaultDocumentAccessBridge.java	(revision 23543)
+++ core/xwiki-core/src/main/java/com/xpn/xwiki/doc/DefaultDocumentAccessBridge.java	(working copy)
@@ -168,16 +168,31 @@
      */
     public boolean exists(String documentName)
     {
-        boolean exists = false;
-        try {
-            XWikiContext xcontext = getContext();
-            XWikiDocument doc = xcontext.getWiki().getDocument(documentName, xcontext);
-            exists = (!doc.isNew());
-        } catch (XWikiException e) {
-            // If we failed to get the document we consider it doesn't exist.
-            // Note that this can happen when the storage subsystem is down for example.
+        XWikiContext xcontext = getContext();
+        XWikiDocument doc = new XWikiDocument();
+        doc.setFullName(documentName, xcontext);
+        String cDatabase = xcontext.getDatabase();
+        //first lets try the pageExistCache, XWiki.exists yields false if error
+        //so might as well just implement it here.
+        try{
+            if(doc.getDatabase() != null){
+                xcontext.setDatabase(doc.getDatabase());
+            }
+            return xcontext.getWiki().getStore().exists(doc, xcontext);
+
+        }catch (XWikiException e) {
+            try {
+                doc = xcontext.getWiki().getDocument(doc, xcontext);
+                return !doc.isNew();
+
+            } catch (XWikiException f) {
+                // If we failed to get the document we consider it doesn't exist.
+                // Note that this can happen when the storage subsystem is down for example.
+                return false;
+            }
+        }finally{
+            xcontext.setDatabase(cDatabase);
         }
-        return exists;
     }
 
     /**