diff --git a/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java b/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
index c3a64b16..cf15e8e0 100644
--- a/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
+++ b/src/core/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
@@ -1391,7 +1391,7 @@ public class LexState extends Constants {
 			return;
 		}
 		default: {
-			this.syntaxerror("unexpected symbol " + t.token + " (" + ((char) t.token) + ")");
+		        this.syntaxerror("unexpected symbol near " + token2str(t.token) + " (code " + t.token + ")");
 			return;
 		}
 		}