diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/zk/KafkaZkClient.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/zk/KafkaZkClient.scala
index 4b7bc466280b1..bcc89de9b7f77 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/zk/KafkaZkClient.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/zk/KafkaZkClient.scala
@@ -1954,7 +1954,9 @@ object KafkaZkClient {
           connectionTimeoutMs, maxInFlightRequests, time, metricGroup, metricType, name, zkClientConfig)
         try {
           val chroot = connectString.substring(chrootIndex)
-          zkClientForChrootCreation.makeSurePersistentPathExists(chroot)
+          if (!zkClientForChrootCreation.pathExists(chroot)) {
+            zkClientForChrootCreation.makeSurePersistentPathExists(chroot)
+          }
         } finally {
           zkClientForChrootCreation.close()
         }
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/zk/ZkClientAclTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/zk/ZkClientAclTest.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..19b78a3fc57da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/zk/ZkClientAclTest.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package kafka.zk
+
+import java.security.MessageDigest
+import java.util.Base64
+
+import org.apache.kafka.common.security.JaasUtils
+import org.apache.kafka.common.utils.Time
+import org.apache.zookeeper.ZooDefs
+import org.apache.zookeeper.data.{ACL, Id}
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.{AfterEach, BeforeEach, Test}
+
+import scala.collection.Seq
+import scala.jdk.CollectionConverters._
+
+class ZkClientAclTest extends ZooKeeperTestHarness {
+
+  @BeforeEach
+  override def setUp(): Unit = {
+    super.setUp()
+  }
+
+  @AfterEach
+  override def tearDown(): Unit = {
+    super.tearDown()
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  def testChrootExistsAndRootIsLocked(): Unit = {
+    // chroot is accessible
+    val chroot = "/chroot"
+    zkClient.makeSurePersistentPathExists(chroot)
+    zkClient.setAcl(chroot, ZooDefs.Ids.OPEN_ACL_UNSAFE.asScala)
+
+    // root is inaccessible
+    val scheme = "digest"
+    val id = "test"
+    val pwd = "12345"
+    val digest = Base64.getEncoder.encode(MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA1").digest(s"$id:$pwd".getBytes()))
+    zkClient.currentZooKeeper.addAuthInfo(scheme, digest)
+    zkClient.setAcl("/", Seq(new ACL(ZooDefs.Perms.ALL, new Id(scheme, s"$id:$digest"))))
+
+    // this client won't have access to the root, but the chroot already exists
+    val chrootClient = KafkaZkClient(zkConnect + chroot, zkAclsEnabled.getOrElse(JaasUtils.isZkSaslEnabled), zkSessionTimeout,
+      zkConnectionTimeout, zkMaxInFlightRequests, Time.SYSTEM, createChrootIfNecessary = true)
+    chrootClient.close()
+  }
+}