diff --git a/lib/jsonlint.js b/lib/jsonlint.js
index 598c18c..de881fb 100644
--- a/lib/jsonlint.js
+++ b/lib/jsonlint.js
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ parseError: function parseError(str, hash) {
     throw new Error(str);
 },
 parse: function parse(input) {
+    if (input.length && (input[0] === '.' || input[0] === '/')) {
+      input = require('fs').readFileSync(input).toString();
+    }
     var self = this,
         stack = [0],
         vstack = [null], // semantic value stack
@@ -429,4 +432,4 @@ exports.main = function commonjsMain(args) {
 if (typeof module !== 'undefined' && require.main === module) {
   exports.main(typeof process !== 'undefined' ? process.argv.slice(1) : require("system").args);
 }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}