diff --git a/jetty-proxy/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServlet.java b/jetty-proxy/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServlet.java
index 3c6ab64263e..98a25f77add 100644
--- a/jetty-proxy/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServlet.java
+++ b/jetty-proxy/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServlet.java
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@ public class ProxyServlet extends HttpServlet
         if (value == null || "-".equals(value))
         {
             executor = (Executor)getServletContext().getAttribute("org.eclipse.jetty.server.Executor");
+            if (executor==null)
+                throw new IllegalStateException("No server executor for proxy");
         }
         else
         {
diff --git a/jetty-proxy/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServletTest.java b/jetty-proxy/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServletTest.java
index 7739fe8cf31..2d356edcde3 100644
--- a/jetty-proxy/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServletTest.java
+++ b/jetty-proxy/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/proxy/ProxyServletTest.java
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ public class ProxyServletTest
         result.setProxyConfiguration(new ProxyConfiguration("localhost", proxyConnector.getLocalPort()));
         QueuedThreadPool threadPool = new QueuedThreadPool();
         threadPool.setName("foo");
-        threadPool.setMaxThreads(2);
+        threadPool.setMaxThreads(20);
         result.setExecutor(threadPool);
         result.start();
 
@@ -269,10 +269,9 @@ public class ProxyServletTest
 
         for ( int i = 0; i < 10; ++i )
         {
-
-        Assert.assertEquals(200, responses[i].getStatus());
-        Assert.assertTrue(responses[i].getHeaders().containsKey(PROXIED_HEADER));
-        Assert.assertArrayEquals(content, responses[i].getContent());
+            Assert.assertEquals(200, responses[i].getStatus());
+            Assert.assertTrue(responses[i].getHeaders().containsKey(PROXIED_HEADER));
+            Assert.assertArrayEquals(content, responses[i].getContent());
         }
     }