diff --git a/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm/LuaJTest.java b/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm/LuaJTest.java
index 6c277f96..feae903b 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm/LuaJTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/luaj/vm/LuaJTest.java
@@ -252,9 +252,27 @@ public class LuaJTest extends TestCase {
 			});
 			outputCopier.start();
 			
+			// start another thread to read output from the subprocess.
+			Thread errorCopier = (new Thread() {
+				public void run() {
+					try {
+						InputStream processError = p.getErrorStream();
+						try {
+							copy( processError, System.err );
+						} finally {
+							processError.close();
+						}
+					} catch ( IOException ioe ) {
+						ioe.printStackTrace();
+					}
+				}
+			});
+			errorCopier.start();
+			
 			p.waitFor();
 			inputCopier.join();
 			outputCopier.join();
+			errorCopier.join();
 			
 			return new String( baos.toByteArray() );
 			
diff --git a/src/test/res/errors.lua b/src/test/res/errors.lua
index a4eee00d..8fe2af99 100644
--- a/src/test/res/errors.lua
+++ b/src/test/res/errors.lua
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 -- object ids
+package.path = "?.lua;src/test/res/?.lua"
 require 'ids'
 ids = {}
 
@@ -83,6 +84,9 @@ t = {}
 print( 'a(setmetatable(t))  ', a(function() return sm(t,{}) end) )
 print( 'a(setmetatable(t*))  ', a(function() return sm(t,{__metatable='some string'}) end) )
 print( 'a(setmetatable(t))  ', a(function() return sm(t,{}) end) )
+print( 'a(setmetatable(t,nil))  ', a(function() return sm(t,nil) end) )
+print( 'a(setmetatable(t))  ', a(function() return sm(t) end) )
+print( 'a(setmetatable({},"abc"))  ', a(function() return sm({},'abc') end) )
 
 -- bad args to error!
 print( 'error("msg","arg")', a(function() error('some message', 'some bad arg') end) )