diff --git a/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst b/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
index 319ed3ae92..5bdf37ffff 100644
--- a/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
+++ b/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
@@ -156,3 +156,15 @@ do not return output. This is most commonly due to the timeout being reached.
 By default the timeout is set to 5 seconds. The timeout value can easily be
 increased by modifying the ``timeout`` line within your ``/etc/salt/master``
 configuration file.
+
+
+Passing the -c Option to Salt Returns a Permissions Error
+=========================================================
+
+Using the ``-c`` option with the Salt command modifies the configuration
+directory. When the configuratio file is read it will still base data off of
+the ``root_dir`` setting. This can result in unintended behavior if you are
+expecting files such as ``/etc/salt/pki`` to be pulled from the location
+specified with ``-c``. Modify the ``root_dir`` setting to address this
+behavior.
+