diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/PPDrawing.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/PPDrawing.java
index db0d434aee..e42b358b89 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/PPDrawing.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/PPDrawing.java
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ public class PPDrawing extends RecordAtom
 	 * Tree walking way of finding Escher Child Records
 	 */
 	private void findEscherChildren(DefaultEscherRecordFactory erf, byte[] source, int startPos, int lenToGo, Vector found) {
+
+        int escherBytes = LittleEndian.getInt( source, startPos + 4 ) + 8;
+
 		// Find the record
 		EscherRecord r = erf.createRecord(source,startPos);
 		// Fill it in
@@ -131,6 +134,17 @@ public class PPDrawing extends RecordAtom
 		if(size < 8) {
 			logger.log(POILogger.WARN, "Hit short DDF record at " + startPos + " - " + size);
 		}
+
+        /**
+         * Sanity check. Always advance the cursor by the correct value.
+         *
+         * getRecordSize() must return exatcly the same number of bytes that was written in fillFields.
+         * Sometimes it is not so, see an example in bug #44770. Most likely reason is that one of ddf records calculates wrong size. 
+         */
+        if(size != escherBytes){
+            logger.log(POILogger.WARN, "Record length=" + escherBytes + " but getRecordSize() returned " + r.getRecordSize() + "; record: " + r.getClass());
+            size = escherBytes;
+        }
 		startPos += size;
 		lenToGo -= size;
 		if(lenToGo >= 8) {
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/Record.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/Record.java
index 79d08ea65e..1aface94cd 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/Record.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/record/Record.java
@@ -185,13 +185,13 @@ public abstract class Record
 			// Instantiate
 			toReturn = (Record)(con.newInstance(new Object[] { b, new Integer(start), new Integer(len) }));
 		} catch(InstantiationException ie) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't instantiate the class for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + ie);
+			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't instantiate the class for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + ie, ie);
 		} catch(java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException ite) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't instantiate the class for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + ite + "\nCause was : " + ite.getCause());
+			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't instantiate the class for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + ite + "\nCause was : " + ite.getCause(), ite);
 		} catch(IllegalAccessException iae) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't access the constructor for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + iae);
+			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't access the constructor for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + iae, iae);
 		} catch(NoSuchMethodException nsme) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't access the constructor for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + nsme);
+			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't access the constructor for type with id " + type + " on class " + c + " : " + nsme, nsme);
 		}
 
 		// Handling for special kinds of records follow
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/data/44770.ppt b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/data/44770.ppt
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..d7ae12b569
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/data/44770.ppt differ
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/usermodel/TestBugs.java b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
index f3f5f8e7ee..36e45501ec 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/usermodel/TestBugs.java
@@ -350,4 +350,14 @@ public class TestBugs extends TestCase {
         assertEquals(Picture.JPEG, pict.getType());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Bug 44770: java.lang.RuntimeException: Couldn't instantiate the class for type with id 1036 on class class org.apache.poi.hslf.record.PPDrawing
+     */
+    public void test44770() throws Exception {
+        FileInputStream is = new FileInputStream(new File(cwd, "44770.ppt"));
+        SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(is);
+        is.close();
+
+        assertTrue("No Exceptions while reading file", true);
+    }
 }