diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/JVMUtils.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/JVMUtils.java
index 1033e1143..142deddaf 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/JVMUtils.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/JVMUtils.java
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ public class JVMUtils {
             // a URISyntaxException here must be an IO error; wrap as such.
             throw new IOException(ex);
         }
+        catch ( NullPointerException ne ) {
+        	throw new IOException("Can not extract code source location for "+clazz.getName());
+        }
     }
 
     /**