diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 784a0982f4e..43ee041e662 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-4571. WebHDFS should not set the service hostname on the server side. 
     (tucu)
 
+    HDFS-4013. TestHftpURLTimeouts throws NPE. (Chao Shi via suresh)
+
 Release 2.0.4-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestHftpURLTimeouts.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestHftpURLTimeouts.java
index 345c150a74a..d9a22c10111 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestHftpURLTimeouts.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestHftpURLTimeouts.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -39,7 +40,7 @@ import org.junit.Test;
 public class TestHftpURLTimeouts {
   @BeforeClass
   public static void setup() {
-    URLUtils.SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 1;
+    URLUtils.SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 5;
   }
   
   @Test
@@ -116,6 +117,7 @@ public class TestHftpURLTimeouts {
           conns.add(fs.openConnection("/", ""));
         } catch (SocketTimeoutException ste) {
           String message = ste.getMessage();
+          assertNotNull(message);
           // https will get a read timeout due to SSL negotiation, but
           // a normal http will not, so need to ignore SSL read timeouts
           // until a connect timeout occurs