diff --git a/openjpa-kernel/src/main/resources/org/apache/openjpa/meta/localizer.properties b/openjpa-kernel/src/main/resources/org/apache/openjpa/meta/localizer.properties
index b68691387..08a6030ae 100644
--- a/openjpa-kernel/src/main/resources/org/apache/openjpa/meta/localizer.properties
+++ b/openjpa-kernel/src/main/resources/org/apache/openjpa/meta/localizer.properties
@@ -268,6 +268,9 @@ pc-and-aware: Attempt to register "{0}" as a persistence-aware class failed. \
 not-non-mapped: Type "{0}" cannot be a non-mapped interface as the class is \
     not an interface
 non-mapped-pc: A non-mapped interface cannot also be mapped.
-no-metadatafactory: No configuration properties were found. If you are \
+no-metadatafactory: MetaDataFactory could not be configured \
+    (conf.newMetaDataFactoryInstance() returned null). This might mean that \
+    no configuration properties were found. If you are \
     using Ant, please see the <properties> or <propertiesFile> attributes \
-    of the task''s nested <config> element.
+    of the task''s nested <config> element. This can also occur if your \
+    OpenJPA distribution jars are corrupt.