diff --git a/conf/dokuwiki.php b/conf/dokuwiki.php
index 65383017c5c06ea71eff1ee9cee447f3de2d1612..1b4a44a382485b7d05ae471a4f7bf3cc6be8baa4 100644
--- a/conf/dokuwiki.php
+++ b/conf/dokuwiki.php
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ $conf['subscribers'] = 0;                //enable change notice subscription sup
 $conf['pluginmanager'] = 0;              //enable automated plugin management (requires plugin)
 $conf['compress']    = 1;                //Strip whitespaces and comments from Styles and JavaScript? 1|0
 $conf['hidepages']   = '';               //Regexp for pages to be skipped from RSS, Search and Recent Changes
+$conf['send404']     = 0;                //Send a HTTP 404 status for non existing pages?
 $conf['rss_type']    = 'rss1';           //type of RSS feed to provide, by default:
                                          //  'rss'  - RSS 0.91
                                          //  'rss1' - RSS 1.0
diff --git a/doku.php b/doku.php
index 7913354f7edd7ca4dbf3951c5aded67a342aed6a..d6da8b1d087bb7a1a49608b262092a5580bb9a78 100644
--- a/doku.php
+++ b/doku.php
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@
   //make infos about the selected page available
   $INFO = pageinfo();
 
+  //send 404 for missing pages if configured
+  if($conf['send404'] && !$INFO['exists']){
+    header('HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found');
+  }
+
   //prepare breadcrumbs (initialize a static var)
   breadcrumbs();