diff --git a/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb b/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
index 47a38c788..d2a12e233 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
@@ -1,21 +1,37 @@
 # Break out the code related to plugins.  This module is
 # just included into the agent, but having it here makes it
 # easier to test.
 module Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler
   def download_plugins?
     Puppet[:pluginsync]
   end
 
   # Retrieve facts from the central server.
   def download_plugins
     return nil unless download_plugins?
     plugin_downloader = Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.new(
       "plugin",
       Puppet[:plugindest],
       Puppet[:pluginsource],
       Puppet[:pluginsignore]
     )
 
-    plugin_downloader.evaluate.each { |file| Puppet.info "Downloaded #{file} from master" unless FileTest.directory?(file) }
+    plugin_downloader.evaluate.each { |file| load_plugin(file) }
+  end
+
+  def load_plugin(file)
+    return unless FileTest.exist?(file)
+    return if FileTest.directory?(file)
+
+    begin
+      if file =~ /.rb$/
+        Puppet.info "Loading downloaded plugin #{file}"
+        load file
+      else
+        Puppet.debug "Skipping downloaded plugin #{file}"
+      end
+    rescue Exception => detail
+      Puppet.err "Could not load downloaded file #{file}: #{detail}"
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb b/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
index 1a19d02e3..0fb718334 100755
--- a/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
@@ -1,53 +1,122 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env rspec
 require 'spec_helper'
 require 'puppet/configurer'
 require 'puppet/configurer/plugin_handler'
 
 class PluginHandlerTester
   include Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler
 end
 
 describe Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler do
   before do
     @pluginhandler = PluginHandlerTester.new
+
+    # PluginHandler#load_plugin has an extra-strong rescue clause
+    # this mock is to make sure that we don't silently ignore errors
+    Puppet.expects(:err).never
   end
 
   it "should have a method for downloading plugins" do
     @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:download_plugins)
   end
 
   it "should have a boolean method for determining whether plugins should be downloaded" do
     @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:download_plugins?)
   end
 
   it "should download plugins when :pluginsync is true" do
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsync).returns true
     @pluginhandler.should be_download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should not download plugins when :pluginsync is false" do
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsync).returns false
     @pluginhandler.should_not be_download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should not download plugins when downloading is disabled" do
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).never
     @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns false
     @pluginhandler.download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should use an Agent Downloader, with the name, source, destination, and ignore set correctly, to download plugins when downloading is enabled" do
     downloader = mock 'downloader'
 
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsource).returns "psource"
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:plugindest).returns "pdest"
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsignore).returns "pignore"
 
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).with("plugin", "pdest", "psource", "pignore").returns downloader
 
     downloader.expects(:evaluate).returns []
 
     @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns true
     @pluginhandler.download_plugins
   end
+
+  it "should be able to load plugins" do
+    @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:load_plugin)
+  end
+
+  it "should load each downloaded file" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    downloader = mock 'downloader'
+
+    Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).returns downloader
+
+    downloader.expects(:evaluate).returns %w{one two}
+
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns true
+
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load_plugin).with("one")
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load_plugin).with("two")
+
+    @pluginhandler.download_plugins
+  end
+
+  it "should load ruby plugins when asked to do so" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo.rb")
+
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo.rb")
+  end
+
+  it "should skip non-ruby plugins when asked to do so" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).never
+
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
+  end
+
+  it "should not try to load files that don't exist" do
+    FileTest.expects(:exist?).with("foo.rb").returns false
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).never
+
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo.rb")
+  end
+
+  it "should not try to load directories" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    FileTest.expects(:directory?).with("foo").returns true
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).never
+
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
+  end
+
+  it "should warn but not fail if loading a file raises an exception" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo.rb").raises "eh"
+
+    Puppet.expects(:err)
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo.rb")
+  end
+
+  it "should warn but not fail if loading a file raises a LoadError" do
+    FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
+    @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo.rb").raises LoadError.new("eh")
+
+    Puppet.expects(:err)
+    @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo.rb")
+  end
 end