Index: src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSegmentReader.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSegmentReader.java	(revision 962932)
+++ src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSegmentReader.java	(working copy)
@@ -139,7 +139,21 @@
     assertTrue(positions != null);
     assertTrue(positions.doc() == 0);
     assertTrue(positions.nextPosition() >= 0);
-  }    
+  }
+
+  /** validate that positions of all terms are same as exposed by SegmentTermEnum
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  public void testGetPosition() throws IOException {
+    long i = 0;
+    SegmentTermEnum terms = (SegmentTermEnum) reader.terms();
+    while (terms.next() == true) {
+      Term term = terms.term();
+      assertTrue(term != null);
+      assertEquals(terms.position, reader.getPosition(term));
+      assertEquals(i++, terms.position);
+    }
+  }
   
   public void testNorms() throws IOException {
     //TODO: Not sure how these work/should be tested
Index: src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java	(revision 962932)
+++ src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java	(working copy)
@@ -891,6 +891,16 @@
     return core.getTermsReader().terms(t);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @param t   a Term to locate
+   * @return the position of a Term in the set or -1.
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  public long getPosition(final Term t) throws IOException {
+    ensureOpen();
+    return core.getTermsReader().getPosition(t);
+  }
+
   FieldInfos fieldInfos() {
     return core.fieldInfos;
   }
Index: src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermInfosReader.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermInfosReader.java	(revision 962932)
+++ src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermInfosReader.java	(working copy)
@@ -256,13 +256,13 @@
     
     SegmentTermEnum enumerator = getThreadResources().termEnum;
     seekEnum(enumerator, indexOffset);
+    enumerator.scanTo(term);
 
-    while(term.compareTo(enumerator.term()) > 0 && enumerator.next()) {}
-
-    if (term.compareTo(enumerator.term()) == 0)
+    Term target = enumerator.term();
+    if (target != null && term.compareTo(target) == 0) {
       return enumerator.position;
-    else
-      return -1;
+    }
+    return -1;
   }
 
   /** Returns an enumeration of all the Terms and TermInfos in the set. */