diff --git a/lib/Cake/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngine.php b/lib/Cake/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngine.php
index f7fbca3e2..6b5dd738f 100755
--- a/lib/Cake/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngine.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngine.php
@@ -96,6 +96,11 @@ class MemcachedEngine extends CacheEngine {
 				}
 
 				if ($this->settings['login'] !== null && $this->settings['password'] !== null) {
+					if (!method_exists($this->_Memcached, 'setSaslAuthData')) {
+						throw new CacheException(
+							__d('cake_dev', 'Memcached extension is not build with SASL support')
+						);
+					}
 					$this->_Memcached->setSaslAuthData($this->settings['login'], $this->settings['password']);
 				}
 			}
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngineTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngineTest.php
index c1e926640..73741dabc 100755
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngineTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Cache/Engine/MemcachedEngineTest.php
@@ -133,6 +133,33 @@ class MemcachedEngineTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$this->assertTrue($MemcachedCompressed->getMemcached()->getOption(Memcached::OPT_COMPRESSION));
 	}
 
+/**
+ * test using authentication without memcached installed with SASL support
+ * throw an exception
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testSaslAuthException() {
+		$Memcached = new TestMemcachedEngine();
+		$settings = array(
+			'engine' => 'Memcached',
+			'servers' => array('127.0.0.1:11211'),
+			'persistent' => false,
+			'login' => 'test',
+			'password' => 'password'
+		);
+
+		$this->skipIf(
+			method_exists($Memcached->getMemcached(), 'setSaslAuthData'),
+			'Memcached extension is installed with SASL support'
+		);
+
+		$this->setExpectedException(
+        	'CacheException', 'Memcached extension is not build with SASL support'
+        );
+		$Memcached->init($settings);
+	}
+
 /**
  * testSettings method
  *