diff --git a/src/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParser.java b/src/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParser.java
index 889d41a..666b059 100644
--- a/src/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParser.java
+++ b/src/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParser.java
@@ -17,21 +17,38 @@
 package com.facebook.buck.test;
 
 import com.facebook.buck.util.XmlDomParser;
+import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
+import com.google.common.io.Files;
 
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.util.List;
 
 public class XmlTestResultParser {
 
-  public static TestCaseSummary parse(File xml) throws IOException {
-    Document doc = XmlDomParser.parse(xml);
+  public static TestCaseSummary parse(File xmlFile) throws IOException {
+    String xmlFileContents = Files.toString(xmlFile, Charsets.UTF_8);
+
+    try {
+      return doParse(xmlFileContents);
+    } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
+      // This is an attempt to track down an inexplicable error that we have observed in the wild.
+      String message = createDetailedExceptionMessage(xmlFile, xmlFileContents);
+      throw new RuntimeException(message, e);
+    }
+  }
+
+  private static TestCaseSummary doParse(String xml) throws IOException {
+    Document doc = XmlDomParser.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(xml)),
+        /* namespaceAware */ false);
     Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();
     Preconditions.checkState("testcase".equals(root.getTagName()));
     String testCaseName = root.getAttribute("name");
@@ -84,4 +101,10 @@
 
     return new TestCaseSummary(testCaseName, testResults);
   }
+
+  private static String createDetailedExceptionMessage(File xmlFile, String xmlFileContents) {
+    String message = "Error parsing test result data in " + xmlFile.getAbsolutePath() + ".\n" +
+        "File contents:\n" + xmlFileContents;
+    return message;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/test/com/facebook/buck/test/BUCK b/test/com/facebook/buck/test/BUCK
index 556e300..24e4103 100644
--- a/test/com/facebook/buck/test/BUCK
+++ b/test/com/facebook/buck/test/BUCK
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
   name = 'test',
   srcs = glob(['*Test.java']),
   deps = [
+    '//lib:guava',
     '//lib:junit',
     '//src/com/facebook/buck/test:test',  
   ],
diff --git a/test/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParserTest.java b/test/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParserTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6ad65f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/com/facebook/buck/test/XmlTestResultParserTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2013-present Facebook, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+ * a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.facebook.buck.test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
+
+import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
+import com.google.common.io.Files;
+
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.rules.TemporaryFolder;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+public class XmlTestResultParserTest {
+
+  @Rule
+  public TemporaryFolder tmp = new TemporaryFolder();
+
+  @Test
+  public void testParseMalformedXml() throws IOException {
+    String xml =
+        "<?xml version='1.1' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='no'?>\n" +
+        "<testcase name='com.facebook.buck.test.XmlTestResultParserTest'>\n" +
+        "  <test name='testParseMalformedXml' success='true' time='too meta'/>\n" +
+        "</testcase>\n";
+    File xmlFile = tmp.newFile("result.xml");
+    Files.write(xml, xmlFile, Charsets.UTF_8);
+
+    try {
+      XmlTestResultParser.parse(xmlFile);
+      fail("Should throw RuntimeException.");
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      assertTrue("The RuntimeException should wrap the NumberFormatException.",
+          e.getCause() instanceof NumberFormatException);
+
+      assertEquals(
+          "Exception should include the path to the file as well as its contents.",
+          "Error parsing test result data in " + xmlFile.getAbsolutePath() + ".\n" +
+              "File contents:\n" + xml,
+          e.getMessage());
+    }
+  }
+}