diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContext.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContext.java
index eac6d70b5..14a680af4 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContext.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContext.java
@@ -1357,10 +1357,10 @@ public class VariantContext implements Feature { // to enable tribble intergrati
                     throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duplicate allele added to VariantContext: " + a);
             }
 
-           // deal with the case where the first allele isn't the reference
+            // deal with the case where the first allele isn't the reference
             if ( a.isReference() ) {
                 if ( sawRef )
-                    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Alleles for a VariantContext must contain a single reference allele: " + alleles);
+                    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Alleles for a VariantContext must contain at most one reference allele: " + alleles);
                 alleleList.add(0, a);
                 sawRef = true;
             }
@@ -1372,7 +1372,7 @@ public class VariantContext implements Feature { // to enable tribble intergrati
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot create a VariantContext with an empty allele list");
 
         if ( alleleList.get(0).isNonReference() )
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Alleles for a VariantContext must contain a single reference allele: " + alleles);
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Alleles for a VariantContext must contain at least one reference allele: " + alleles);
 
         return alleleList;
     }