diff --git a/bin/pulsar-shell b/bin/pulsar-shell
index b0ad7cec84d8e..2934e65db5361 100755
--- a/bin/pulsar-shell
+++ b/bin/pulsar-shell
@@ -36,4 +36,6 @@ export PULSAR_HOME=`cd -P $BINDIR/..;pwd`
 OPTS="-Dorg.jline.terminal.jansi=false $OPTS"
 DEFAULT_CONFIG="-Dpulsar.shell.config.default=$PULSAR_CLIENT_CONF"
 
+#Change to PULSAR_HOME to support relative paths
+cd "$PULSAR_HOME"
 exec $JAVA $OPTS $DEFAULT_CONFIG org.apache.pulsar.shell.PulsarShell "$@"
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diff --git a/bin/pulsar-shell.cmd b/bin/pulsar-shell.cmd
index e8d0a59e4d9fd..ffc1b4f6bf2f3 100644
--- a/bin/pulsar-shell.cmd
+++ b/bin/pulsar-shell.cmd
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ if ERRORLEVEL 1 (
 
 set "OPTS=%OPTS% -Dorg.jline.terminal.jansi=false"
 set "DEFAULT_CONFIG=-Dpulsar.shell.config.default="%PULSAR_CLIENT_CONF%""
-
+cd "%PULSAR_HOME%"
 "%JAVACMD%" %OPTS%  %DEFAULT_CONFIG%  org.apache.pulsar.shell.PulsarShell %*
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