diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 14bf90e..1048c33 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # ignore test directories
 spec/index_dir/*
+benchmark/index_dir/*
 tmp
 
 # rcov generated
diff --git a/benchmark/search_bench.rb b/benchmark/search_bench.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..638f859
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/search_bench.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+$LOAD_PATH.unshift(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '..', 'lib'))
+require 'rubygems'
+require 'benchmark'
+require 'virtus'
+require 'polecat'
+
+class Document
+  include Virtus
+
+  attribute :name, Integer
+  attribute :text, String
+end
+
+begin
+  FileUtils.rm_r 'benchmark/index_dir'
+rescue
+end
+Dir.mkdir 'benchmark/index_dir'
+writer = Polecat::IndexWriter.new 'benchmark/index_dir'
+
+(1..50000).each do |i|
+  writer.add(Document.new(:name => i, :text => "Lorem #{i} Ipsum"))
+end
+
+writer.write
+searcher = Polecat::IndexSearcher.new :reader => writer.create_reader
+query = Polecat::Query.new.add(Polecat::Term.new(:name, :lt, 25000))
+
+puts Benchmark.bm { |x|
+  x.report('search') {
+    for i in 1..5000 do
+      searcher.search query
+    end
+  }
+}