diff --git a/lucene/contrib/misc/src/java/org/apache/lucene/misc/HighFreqTerms.java b/lucene/contrib/misc/src/java/org/apache/lucene/misc/HighFreqTerms.java
index 5bdeecacc19..1b903c522cc 100644
--- a/lucene/contrib/misc/src/java/org/apache/lucene/misc/HighFreqTerms.java
+++ b/lucene/contrib/misc/src/java/org/apache/lucene/misc/HighFreqTerms.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.Fields;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.TermsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.FieldsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Terms;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.FieldReaderException;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.DocsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.DocIdSetIterator;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.FSDirectory;
@@ -117,7 +116,7 @@ public class HighFreqTerms {
     if (field != null) {
       Fields fields = MultiFields.getFields(reader);
       if (fields == null) {
-        throw new FieldReaderException("field " + field + " not found");
+        throw new RuntimeException("field " + field + " not found");
       }
       Terms terms = fields.terms(field);
       if (terms != null) {
@@ -128,7 +127,7 @@ public class HighFreqTerms {
     } else {
       Fields fields = MultiFields.getFields(reader);
       if (fields == null) {
-        throw new FieldReaderException("no fields found for this index");
+        throw new RuntimeException("no fields found for this index");
       }
       tiq = new TermStatsQueue(numTerms);
       FieldsEnum fieldsEnum = fields.iterator();