diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Finder.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Finder.php
index cbaa9acaa3..e2219e7128 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Finder.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Finder.php
@@ -615,8 +615,8 @@ class Finder implements \IteratorAggregate, \Countable
      */
     public function getIterator()
     {
-        if (0 === count($this->dirs)) {
-            throw new \LogicException('You must call the in() method before iterating over a Finder.');
+        if (0 === count($this->dirs) && 0 === count($this->iterators)) {
+            throw new \LogicException('You must call one of in() or append() methods before iterating over a Finder.');
         }
 
         if (1 === count($this->dirs) && 0 === count($this->iterators)) {
@@ -641,6 +641,10 @@ class Finder implements \IteratorAggregate, \Countable
      * The set can be another Finder, an Iterator, an IteratorAggregate, or even a plain array.
      *
      * @param mixed $iterator
+     *
+     * @return Finder The finder
+     *
+     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException When the given argument is not iterable.
      */
     public function append($iterator)
     {
@@ -657,6 +661,8 @@ class Finder implements \IteratorAggregate, \Countable
         } else {
             throw new \InvalidArgumentException('Finder::append() method wrong argument type.');
         }
+
+        return $this;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Tests/FinderTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Tests/FinderTest.php
index 9b8384b5cc..5d6025494e 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Tests/FinderTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Finder/Tests/FinderTest.php
@@ -408,7 +408,8 @@ class FinderTest extends Iterator\RealIteratorTestCase
         $finder1 = $this->buildFinder($adapter);
         $finder1->directories()->in(self::$tmpDir);
 
-        $finder->append($finder1);
+        $finder = $finder->append($finder1);
+
 
         $this->assertIterator($this->toAbsolute(array('foo', 'foo/bar.tmp', 'toto')), $finder->getIterator());
     }
@@ -426,6 +427,27 @@ class FinderTest extends Iterator\RealIteratorTestCase
         $this->assertIterator($this->toAbsolute(array('foo', 'foo/bar.tmp', 'toto')), $finder->getIterator());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getAdaptersTestData
+     */
+    public function testAppendReturnsAFinder($adapter)
+    {
+        $this->assertInstanceOf('Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder', $this->buildFinder($adapter)->append(array()));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getAdaptersTestData
+     */
+    public function testAppendDoesNotRequireIn($adapter)
+    {
+        $finder = $this->buildFinder($adapter);
+        $finder->in(self::$tmpDir.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'foo');
+
+        $finder1 = Finder::create()->append($finder);
+
+        $this->assertIterator(iterator_to_array($finder->getIterator()), $finder1->getIterator());
+    }
+
     public function testCountDirectories()
     {
         $finder = new Finder();