diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 4a74446bad8..f6c93b7b314 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -1270,6 +1270,9 @@ Extension Modules
 
 - Bug #1372: zlibmodule.c: int overflow in PyZlib_decompress
 
+- bsddb module: Fix memory leak when using database cursors on
+  databases without a DBEnv.
+
 Tests
 -----
 
diff --git a/Modules/_bsddb.c b/Modules/_bsddb.c
index f40743493c3..7d05b24ed1d 100644
--- a/Modules/_bsddb.c
+++ b/Modules/_bsddb.c
@@ -824,7 +824,6 @@ DBCursor_dealloc(DBCursorObject* self)
     }
 
     if (self->dbc != NULL) {
-        MYDB_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS;
 	/* If the underlying database has been closed, we don't
 	   need to do anything. If the environment has been closed
 	   we need to leak, as BerkeleyDB will crash trying to access
@@ -833,9 +832,14 @@ DBCursor_dealloc(DBCursorObject* self)
 	   a database open. */
 	if (self->mydb->db && self->mydb->myenvobj &&
 	    !self->mydb->myenvobj->closed)
+        /* test for: open db + no environment or non-closed environment */
+	if (self->mydb->db && (!self->mydb->myenvobj || (self->mydb->myenvobj &&
+	    !self->mydb->myenvobj->closed))) {
+            MYDB_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS;
             err = self->dbc->c_close(self->dbc);
+            MYDB_END_ALLOW_THREADS;
+        }
         self->dbc = NULL;
-        MYDB_END_ALLOW_THREADS;
     }
     Py_XDECREF( self->mydb );
     PyObject_Del(self);