diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
index 6ebfc9e8a4489..a16e2bef02aeb 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Added timeout option to SQLite3 configurations to deal more gracefully with SQLite3::BusyException, now the connection can instead retry for x seconds to see if the db clears up before throwing that exception #6126 [wreese@gmail.com]
+
 * Added update_attributes! which uses save! to raise an exception if a validation error prevents saving #6192 [jonathan]
 
 * Deprecated add_on_boundary_breaking (use validates_length_of instead) #6292 [BobSilva]
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite_adapter.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite_adapter.rb
index 308a21191da6c..db9aa2e717094 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite_adapter.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite_adapter.rb
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ def sqlite3_connection(config) # :nodoc:
           :results_as_hash => true,
           :type_translation => false
         )
+
+        db.busy_timeout(config[:timeout]) unless config[:timeout].nil?
+
         ConnectionAdapters::SQLiteAdapter.new(db, logger)
       end
 
diff --git a/activerecord/test/connections/native_sqlite3/connection.rb b/activerecord/test/connections/native_sqlite3/connection.rb
index 008ea686d6ce8..6dbb2b98c1b54 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/connections/native_sqlite3/connection.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/connections/native_sqlite3/connection.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ class SqliteError < StandardError
 sqlite_test_db2 = "#{BASE_DIR}/fixture_database_2.sqlite3"
 
 def make_connection(clazz, db_file, db_definitions_file)
-  ActiveRecord::Base.configurations = { clazz.name => { :adapter => 'sqlite3', :database => db_file } }
+  ActiveRecord::Base.configurations = { clazz.name => { :adapter => 'sqlite3', :database => db_file, :timeout => 5000 } }
   unless File.exist?(db_file)
     puts "SQLite3 database not found at #{db_file}. Rebuilding it."
     sqlite_command = %Q{sqlite3 #{db_file} "create table a (a integer); drop table a;"}
diff --git a/railties/CHANGELOG b/railties/CHANGELOG
index 4ef9915ff5ad6..8ea81f7cd2189 100644
--- a/railties/CHANGELOG
+++ b/railties/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Added default timeout setting of 5 seconds to SQLite3 database.yml configurations [DHH]
+
 * Added generated attribute options to script/generate model, like the one found in scaffold_resource and resource [DHH]. Examples:
 
     ./script/generate model post title:string created_on:date body:text published:boolean
diff --git a/railties/configs/databases/sqlite3.yml b/railties/configs/databases/sqlite3.yml
index 6f8cbaf18fe9e..60d8563a42798 100644
--- a/railties/configs/databases/sqlite3.yml
+++ b/railties/configs/databases/sqlite3.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 development:
   adapter: sqlite3
   database: db/development.sqlite3
+  timeout: 5000
 
 # Warning: The database defined as 'test' will be erased and
 # re-generated from your development database when you run 'rake'.
@@ -10,7 +11,9 @@ development:
 test:
   adapter: sqlite3
   database: db/test.sqlite3
+  timeout: 5000
 
 production:
   adapter: sqlite3
   database: db/production.sqlite3
+  timeout: 5000