diff --git a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterDelete.java b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterDelete.java
index f85c79df3a9..0ab6d1e9077 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterDelete.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterDelete.java
@@ -1218,6 +1218,9 @@ public class TestIndexWriterDelete extends LuceneTestCase {
     d.close();
   }
 
+  private static class FakeIOException extends IOException {
+  }
+
   // Make sure if we hit disk full, and then later disk
   // frees up, and we successfully close IW or open an NRT
   // reader, we don't lose any deletes:
@@ -1232,8 +1235,6 @@ public class TestIndexWriterDelete extends LuceneTestCase {
     final AtomicBoolean shouldFail = new AtomicBoolean();
     dir.failOn(new MockDirectoryWrapper.Failure() {
 
-          boolean failedAlready;
-
           @Override
           public void eval(MockDirectoryWrapper dir) throws IOException {
             StackTraceElement[] trace = new Exception().getStackTrace();
@@ -1249,7 +1250,7 @@ public class TestIndexWriterDelete extends LuceneTestCase {
                       new Throwable().printStackTrace(System.out);
                     }
                     shouldFail.set(false);
-                    throw new IOException("now fail on purpose");
+                    throw new FakeIOException();
                   } else {
                     break;
                   }
@@ -1292,7 +1293,7 @@ public class TestIndexWriterDelete extends LuceneTestCase {
         }
 
         w.close();
-      } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      } catch (FakeIOException ioe) {
         // expected
         if (VERBOSE) {
           System.out.println("TEST: w.close() hit expected IOE");