diff --git a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/resource/FileResource.java b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/resource/FileResource.java
index d2f25028757..a3440a2286e 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/resource/FileResource.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/resource/FileResource.java
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ import java.nio.channels.ReadableByteChannel;
 import java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption;
 import java.security.Permission;
 
+import javax.management.RuntimeErrorException;
+
 import org.eclipse.jetty.util.IO;
 import org.eclipse.jetty.util.URIUtil;
 import org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.Log;
@@ -148,9 +150,19 @@ public class FileResource extends Resource
         }
         catch(IOException e)
         {
-            LOG.warn(e);
+            LOG.warn("bad alias for {}: {}",file,e.toString());
+            LOG.debug(e);
+            try
+            {
+                return new URL("http://eclipse.org/bad/canonical/alias");
+            }
+            catch(Exception e2)
+            {
+                LOG.ignore(e2);
+                throw new RuntimeException(e);
+            }
         }
-          
+
         return null;
     }