diff --git a/gio/gresource.c b/gio/gresource.c
index f38de86f5..8ead26bc6 100644
--- a/gio/gresource.c
+++ b/gio/gresource.c
@@ -862,9 +862,17 @@ g_resource_enumerate_children (GResource             *resource,
                                GResourceLookupFlags   lookup_flags,
                                GError               **error)
 {
+  gchar local_str[256];
+  const gchar *path_with_slash;
   gchar **children;
+  gchar *free_path = NULL;
   gsize path_len;
-  char *path_with_slash;
+
+  /*
+   * Size of 256 is arbitrarily chosen based on being large enough
+   * for pretty much everything we come across, but not cumbersome
+   * on the stack. It also matches common cacheline sizes.
+   */
 
   if (*path == 0)
     {
@@ -875,13 +883,35 @@ g_resource_enumerate_children (GResource             *resource,
     }
 
   path_len = strlen (path);
-  if (path[path_len-1] != '/')
-    path_with_slash = g_strconcat (path, "/", NULL);
+
+  if G_UNLIKELY (path[path_len-1] != '/')
+    {
+      if (path_len < sizeof (local_str) - 2)
+        {
+          /*
+           * We got a path that does not have a trailing /. It is not the
+           * ideal use of this API as we require trailing / for our lookup
+           * into gvdb. Some degenerate application configurations can hit
+           * this code path quite a bit, so we try to avoid using the
+           * g_strconcat()/g_free().
+           */
+          memcpy (local_str, path, path_len);
+          local_str[path_len] = '/';
+          local_str[path_len+1] = 0;
+          path_with_slash = local_str;
+        }
+      else
+        {
+          path_with_slash = free_path = g_strconcat (path, "/", NULL);
+        }
+    }
   else
-    path_with_slash = g_strdup (path);
+    {
+      path_with_slash = path;
+    }
 
   children = gvdb_table_list (resource->table, path_with_slash);
-  g_free (path_with_slash);
+  g_free (free_path);
 
   if (children == NULL)
     {
diff --git a/gio/tests/resources.c b/gio/tests/resources.c
index 81922d3f8..8163aa141 100644
--- a/gio/tests/resources.c
+++ b/gio/tests/resources.c
@@ -134,6 +134,32 @@ test_resource (GResource *resource)
   g_assert_no_error (error);
   g_assert_cmpint (g_strv_length (children), ==, 2);
   g_strfreev (children);
+
+  /* Test the preferred lookup where we have a trailing slash. */
+  children = g_resource_enumerate_children  (resource,
+					     "/a_prefix/",
+					     G_RESOURCE_LOOKUP_FLAGS_NONE,
+					     &error);
+  g_assert (children != NULL);
+  g_assert_no_error (error);
+  g_assert_cmpint (g_strv_length (children), ==, 2);
+  g_strfreev (children);
+
+  /* test with a path > 256 and no trailing slash to test the
+   * slow path of resources where we allocate a modified path.
+   */
+  children = g_resource_enumerate_children  (resource,
+					     "/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here"
+					     "/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here"
+					     "/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here"
+					     "/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here"
+					     "/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here/not/here"
+					     "/with/no/trailing/slash",
+					     G_RESOURCE_LOOKUP_FLAGS_NONE,
+					     &error);
+  g_assert (children == NULL);
+  g_assert_error (error, G_RESOURCE_ERROR, G_RESOURCE_ERROR_NOT_FOUND);
+  g_clear_error (&error);
 }
 
 static void