diff --git a/src/clj/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_core.clj b/src/clj/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_core.clj
index cc550453..bda502ef 100644
--- a/src/clj/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_core.clj
+++ b/src/clj/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_core.clj
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@
    9k."
     :jit)
 
+(def jruby-bundled-gems
+  "The gem repository inside jruby-stdlib.jar. Contains the 'bundled' gems
+  that are part of the Ruby Standard Library."
+  "uri:classloader:/META-INF/jruby.home/lib/ruby/gems/shared")
+
 (def default-borrow-timeout
   "Default timeout when borrowing instances from the JRuby pool in
    milliseconds. Current value is 1200000ms, or 20 minutes."
@@ -92,8 +97,8 @@
   [env :- {schema/Str schema/Str}
    config :- jruby-schemas/JRubyConfig]
   (if-let [gem-path (:gem-path config)]
-    (assoc env "GEM_PATH" gem-path)
-    env))
+    (assoc env "GEM_PATH" (str gem-path ":" jruby-bundled-gems))
+    (assoc env "GEM_PATH" jruby-bundled-gems)))
 
 (def proxy-vars-allowed-list
   "A list of proxy-related variables that are allowed to be passed the environment"
diff --git a/test/unit/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_interpreter_test.clj b/test/unit/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_interpreter_test.clj
index 6c6602ea..dea0c172 100644
--- a/test/unit/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_interpreter_test.clj
+++ b/test/unit/puppetlabs/services/jruby_pool_manager/jruby_interpreter_test.clj
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
        ;; but are not expected to be set in most environments. However, in
        ;; order to make this more test robust, these variables are always
        ;; filtered out.
-       (is (= #{"HOME" "PATH" "GEM_HOME" "JARS_NO_REQUIRE" "JARS_REQUIRE" "RUBY"}
+       (is (= #{"HOME" "PATH" "GEM_HOME" "GEM_PATH" "JARS_NO_REQUIRE" "JARS_REQUIRE" "RUBY"}
               (set (remove (set jruby-core/proxy-vars-allowed-list) (keys jruby-env)))))))))
 
 (deftest jruby-configured-env-vars
@@ -28,6 +28,6 @@
        ;; but are not expected to be set in most environments. However, in
        ;; order to make this test more robust, these variables are always
        ;; filtered out.
-       (is (= #{"HOME" "PATH" "GEM_HOME" "JARS_NO_REQUIRE" "JARS_REQUIRE" "FOO" "RUBY"}
+       (is (= #{"HOME" "PATH" "GEM_HOME" "GEM_PATH" "JARS_NO_REQUIRE" "JARS_REQUIRE" "FOO" "RUBY"}
               (set (remove (set jruby-core/proxy-vars-allowed-list) (keys jruby-env)))))
        (is (= (.get jruby-env "FOO") "for_jruby"))))))