diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index af8643d0f7e..27de23fa7e8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -599,6 +599,8 @@ Release 2.0.2-alpha - 2012-09-07
 
     HDFS-3664. BlockManager race when stopping active services.
     (Colin Patrick McCabe via eli)
+
+    HDFS-3928. MiniDFSCluster should reset the first ExitException on shutdown. (eli)
     
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-3042 SUBTASKS
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
index 4e352018e40..18fe8adc0f8 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/MiniDFSCluster.java
@@ -1356,6 +1356,7 @@ public class MiniDFSCluster {
       if (ExitUtil.terminateCalled()) {
         LOG.fatal("Test resulted in an unexpected exit",
             ExitUtil.getFirstExitException());
+        ExitUtil.resetFirstExitException();
         throw new AssertionError("Test resulted in an unexpected exit");
       }
     }