diff --git a/examples/simple_authentication/README.txt b/examples/simple_authentication/README.txt
index 3de5092fd2..dcf95538d9 100644
--- a/examples/simple_authentication/README.txt
+++ b/examples/simple_authentication/README.txt
@@ -10,5 +10,16 @@ You can then set the authenticator and authority properties in cassandra.yaml
 to use those classes. See the two configuration files access.properties and
 passwd.properties to configure the authorized users and permissions.
 
+When starting cassandra, you need to specify the location of the passwd.properties
+and access.properties files by adding JVM args similar to the following either
+in cassandra-env.sh or as commandline arguments:
+
+    -Dpasswd.properties=conf/passwd.properties
+    -Daccess.properties=conf/access.properties
+
+For example, you might invoke cassandra as follows:
+
+    bin/cassandra -f -Dpasswd.properties=conf/passwd.properties -Daccess.properties=conf/access.properties
+
 Please note that the code in this directory is for demonstration purposes. In
 particular, it does not provide a high level of security.