diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
index 2f9a1afec..0375cf9db 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def load_tokenized_prepared_datasets(
                 raise Exception("unhandled dataset load")
             # support for using a subset of the data
             if d.shards:
-                ds = ds.shuffle(seed=42)["train"].shard(num_shards=cfg.shards, index=0)
+                ds = ds.shuffle(seed=42)["train"].shard(num_shards=d.shards, index=0)
             d_type = d.type
             d_type_split = d_type.split(":")
             d_base_type = d_type_split[0]