diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.class b/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.class
index d6516150..7a7ac674 100644
Binary files a/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.class and b/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.class differ
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java b/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
index abee782c..06fb2aa1 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/luaj/vm2/compiler/LexState.java
@@ -1393,7 +1393,7 @@ public class LexState extends Constants {
 				return;
 			}
 			default: {
-				this.syntaxerror("unexpected symbol " + t.token + " (" + ((char) t.token) + ")");
+				this.syntaxerror("unexpected symbol near " + txtToken(t.token));
 				return;
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/jse/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm2/FragmentsTest.java b/jse/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm2/FragmentsTest.java
index 00362cb6..c730a143 100644
--- a/jse/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm2/FragmentsTest.java
+++ b/jse/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm2/FragmentsTest.java
@@ -189,6 +189,26 @@ public class FragmentsTest extends TestSuite {
 			assertEquals("interrupted", thrown.get().getMessage());
 		}
 
+		public void testBareExpressionReportsReadableToken() {
+			Globals globals = JsePlatform.debugGlobals();
+			try {
+				globals.load("1 + 1", "expr.lua");
+				fail("expected syntax error");
+			} catch (LuaError e) {
+				assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("unexpected symbol near 1"));
+			}
+		}
+
+		public void testUnfinishedTableReportsEof() {
+			Globals globals = JsePlatform.debugGlobals();
+			try {
+				globals.load("mytab = {", "table.lua");
+				fail("expected syntax error");
+			} catch (LuaError e) {
+				assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("near <eof>"));
+			}
+		}
+
 		public void testLongIntegerLiteralPrecision() {
 			runFragment(
 				LuaValue.varargsOf(new LuaValue[] {