diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 652b7a09e9c..858325fa248 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -849,6 +849,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
+    HDFS-9257. improve error message for "Absolute path required" in INode.java
+    to contain the rejected path (Marcell Szabo via harsh)
+
     HDFS-2390. dfsadmin -setBalancerBandwidth does not validate -ve value
     (Gautam Gopalakrishnan via harsh)
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/INode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/INode.java
index 64442fdc29e..9d04fbba810 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/INode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/INode.java
@@ -748,7 +748,8 @@ public abstract class INode implements INodeAttributes, Diff.Element<byte[]> {
    */
   public static String[] getPathNames(String path) {
     if (path == null || !path.startsWith(Path.SEPARATOR)) {
-      throw new AssertionError("Absolute path required");
+      throw new AssertionError("Absolute path required, but got '"
+          + path + "'");
     }
     return StringUtils.split(path, Path.SEPARATOR_CHAR);
   }