diff --git a/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java b/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
index 9a3ec9d651..6e4b591479 100644
--- a/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
+++ b/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
@@ -1091,7 +1091,7 @@ public class DefaultMavenProjectBuilder
         }
         catch ( XmlPullParserException e )
         {
-            throw new InvalidProjectModelException( projectId, pomLocation, "Parse error reading POM", e );
+            throw new InvalidProjectModelException( projectId, pomLocation, "Parse error reading POM. Reason: " + e.getMessage(), e );
         }
     }