diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
index d60aa95d0cb..18862d8fa7a 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
@@ -1033,6 +1033,43 @@ public function testSortWithOutOfOrderKeys() {
 		$this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
 	}
 
+/**
+ * test sorting with string keys.
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testSortString() {
+		$to_sort = array(
+			'four' => array('number' => 4, 'some' => 'foursome'),
+			'six' => array('number' => 6, 'some' => 'sixsome'),
+			'five' => array('number' => 5, 'some' => 'fivesome'),
+			'two' => array('number' => 2, 'some' => 'twosome'),
+			'three' => array('number' => 3, 'some' => 'threesome')
+		);
+		$sorted = Hash::sort($to_sort, '{s}.number', 'asc');
+		$expected = array(
+			'two' => array('number' => 2, 'some' => 'twosome'),
+			'three' => array('number' => 3, 'some' => 'threesome'),
+			'four' => array('number' => 4, 'some' => 'foursome'),
+			'five' => array('number' => 5, 'some' => 'fivesome'),
+			'six' => array('number' => 6, 'some' => 'sixsome')
+		);
+		$this->assertEquals($expected, $sorted);
+
+		$menus = array(
+			'blogs' => array('title' => 'Blogs', 'weight' => 3),
+			'comments' => array('title' => 'Comments', 'weight' => 2),
+			'users' => array('title' => 'Users', 'weight' => 1),
+		);
+		$expected = array(
+			'users' => array('title' => 'Users', 'weight' => 1),
+			'comments' => array('title' => 'Comments', 'weight' => 2),
+			'blogs' => array('title' => 'Blogs', 'weight' => 3),
+		);
+		$result = Hash::sort($menus, '{s}.weight', 'ASC');
+		$this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
+	}
+
 /**
  * Test insert()
  *
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php b/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
index 54e951c1ac7..83597078d70 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
@@ -695,7 +695,8 @@ public static function apply(array $data, $path, $function) {
  */
 	public static function sort(array $data, $path, $dir) {
 		$originalKeys = array_keys($data);
-		if (is_numeric(implode('', $originalKeys))) {
+		$numeric = is_numeric(implode('', $originalKeys));
+		if ($numeric) {
 			$data = array_values($data);
 		}
 		$sortValues = self::extract($data, $path);
@@ -722,7 +723,15 @@ public static function sort(array $data, $path, $dir) {
 		$keys = array_unique($keys);
 
 		foreach ($keys as $k) {
-			$sorted[] = $data[$k];
+			if ($numeric) {
+				$sorted[] = $data[$k];
+				continue;
+			} 
+			if (isset($originalKeys[$k])) {
+				$sorted[$originalKeys[$k]] = $data[$originalKeys[$k]];
+			} else {
+				$sorted[$k] = $data[$k];
+			}
 		}
 		return $sorted;
 	}