Simple Zend Framework Question

This aggravated me to the point that I let it alone for a few months, came back and still couldn't figure out what is going on.

ZEND will not, no matter what I attempt to do, find the include path files for the framework. I have many pear/pecl extensions installed - ZEND will run if I upload an individual set of framework files to the web directory - but then the zf command line tool fails. Anyway, the issue here is:

PHP Warning:  require_once(Zend/Application.php) [<a href='function.require-once'>function.require-once</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /path/to/httpdocs/mahdi/public/index.php on line 18

PHP Fatal error:  require_once() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed opening required 'Zend/Application.php' (include_path='/path/to/httpdocs/:.:/usr/share/pear/:/usr/share/zend/library/') in /path/to/httpdocs/mahdi/public/index.php on line 18

php.ini -> include_path=".:/usr/share/pear/:/usr/share/zend/library/"

# ls /usr/share/zend/library/Zend/Application.php | grep Application.php
/usr/share/zend/library/Zend/Application.php

Why would it say it doesn't exist, give me a file location and an include path that both obviously DO exist? Can't help but think I'm going crazy in a situation like this. Thanks.