diff --git a/dbtests/basictests.cpp b/dbtests/basictests.cpp
index 97fb748249a96..48df6ac9775f9 100644
--- a/dbtests/basictests.cpp
+++ b/dbtests/basictests.cpp
@@ -406,7 +406,8 @@ namespace BasicTests {
             ASSERT_EQUALS( -1, lexNumCmp( "000a", "001a"));
             ASSERT_EQUALS( 0, lexNumCmp( "010a", "0010a"));
             
-            ASSERT_EQUALS( 1 , lexNumCmp( "a0" , "a00" ) );
+            ASSERT_EQUALS( -1 , lexNumCmp( "a0" , "a00" ) );
+            ASSERT_EQUALS( 0 , lexNumCmp( "a.0" , "a.00" ) );
         }
     };
 
diff --git a/jstests/updatea.js b/jstests/updatea.js
index 9864aa6788985..5b45d60f7bfc3 100644
--- a/jstests/updatea.js
+++ b/jstests/updatea.js
@@ -47,4 +47,10 @@ t.update( {} , { $inc: { "a.10" : 1 } } );
 orig.a[10]++;
 
 
+// SERVER-3218
+t.drop()
+t.insert({"a":{"c00":1}, 'c':2}) 
+t.update({"c":2}, {'$inc':{'a.c000':1}}) 
+
+assert.eq( { "c00" : 1 , "c000" : 1 } , t.findOne().a , "D1" )
 
diff --git a/util/stringutils.h b/util/stringutils.h
index 1dad4beb9b429..1b1ff5613e7a3 100644
--- a/util/stringutils.h
+++ b/util/stringutils.h
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ namespace mongo {
     // for convenience, '{' is greater than anything and stops number parsing
     inline int lexNumCmp( const char *s1, const char *s2 ) {
         //cout << "START : " << s1 << "\t" << s2 << endl;
+
+        bool startWord = true;
+        
         while( *s1 && *s2 ) {
 
             bool p1 = ( *s1 == (char)255 );
@@ -59,8 +62,11 @@ namespace mongo {
 
             if ( n1 && n2 ) {
                 // get rid of leading 0s
-                while ( *s1 == '0' ) s1++;
-                while ( *s2 == '0' ) s2++;
+                if ( startWord ) {
+                    while ( *s1 == '0' ) s1++;
+                    while ( *s2 == '0' ) s2++;
+                    startWord = false;
+                }
 
                 char * e1 = (char*)s1;
                 char * e2 = (char*)s2;
@@ -91,7 +97,7 @@ namespace mongo {
                 s2 = e2;
                 continue;
             }
-
+            
             if ( n1 )
                 return 1;
 
@@ -103,7 +109,11 @@ namespace mongo {
 
             if ( *s2 > *s1 )
                 return -1;
-
+            
+            if ( *s1 == '.' )
+                startWord = true;
+            else
+                startWord = false;
             s1++; s2++;
         }