diff --git a/client/rest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestClient.java b/client/rest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestClient.java
index 4faf6321a8d..eb51d6982f0 100644
--- a/client/rest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestClient.java
+++ b/client/rest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestClient.java
@@ -504,7 +504,7 @@ public final class RestClient implements Closeable {
         }
     }
 
-    private static class FailureTrackingResponseListener {
+    static class FailureTrackingResponseListener {
         private final ResponseListener responseListener;
         private volatile Exception exception;
 
diff --git a/client/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/FailureTrackingResponseListenerTests.java b/client/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/FailureTrackingResponseListenerTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f6ec388d09d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/rest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/FailureTrackingResponseListenerTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.client;
+
+import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
+import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.ProtocolVersion;
+import org.apache.http.RequestLine;
+import org.apache.http.StatusLine;
+import org.apache.http.message.BasicHttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.message.BasicRequestLine;
+import org.apache.http.message.BasicStatusLine;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertSame;
+
+public class FailureTrackingResponseListenerTests extends RestClientTestCase {
+
+    public void testOnSuccess() {
+        MockResponseListener responseListener = new MockResponseListener();
+        RestClient.FailureTrackingResponseListener listener = new RestClient.FailureTrackingResponseListener(responseListener);
+
+    }
+
+    public void testOnFailure() {
+        MockResponseListener responseListener = new MockResponseListener();
+        RestClient.FailureTrackingResponseListener listener = new RestClient.FailureTrackingResponseListener(responseListener);
+        int numIters = randomIntBetween(1, 10);
+        Exception[] expectedExceptions = new Exception[numIters];
+        for (int i = 0; i < numIters; i++) {
+            RuntimeException runtimeException = new RuntimeException("test" + i);
+            expectedExceptions[i] = runtimeException;
+            listener.trackFailure(runtimeException);
+            assertNull(responseListener.response.get());
+            assertNull(responseListener.exception.get());
+        }
+
+        if (randomBoolean()) {
+            Response response = mockResponse();
+            listener.onSuccess(response);
+            assertSame(response, responseListener.response.get());
+            assertNull(responseListener.exception.get());
+        } else {
+            RuntimeException runtimeException = new RuntimeException("definitive");
+            listener.onDefinitiveFailure(runtimeException);
+            assertNull(responseListener.response.get());
+            Throwable exception = responseListener.exception.get();
+            assertSame(runtimeException, exception);
+
+            int i = numIters - 1;
+            do {
+                assertNotNull(exception.getSuppressed());
+                assertEquals(1, exception.getSuppressed().length);
+                assertSame(expectedExceptions[i--], exception.getSuppressed()[0]);
+                exception = exception.getSuppressed()[0];
+            } while(i >= 0);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static class MockResponseListener implements ResponseListener {
+        private final AtomicReference<Response> response = new AtomicReference<>();
+        private final AtomicReference<Exception> exception = new AtomicReference<>();
+
+        @Override
+        public void onSuccess(Response response) {
+            if (this.response.compareAndSet(null, response) == false) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException("onSuccess was called multiple times");
+            }
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void onFailure(Exception exception) {
+            if (this.exception.compareAndSet(null, exception) == false) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException("onFailure was called multiple times");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static Response mockResponse() {
+        ProtocolVersion protocolVersion = new ProtocolVersion("HTTP", 1, 1);
+        RequestLine requestLine = new BasicRequestLine("GET", "/", protocolVersion);
+        StatusLine statusLine = new BasicStatusLine(protocolVersion, 200, "OK");
+        HttpResponse httpResponse = new BasicHttpResponse(statusLine);
+        return new Response(requestLine, new HttpHost("localhost", 9200), httpResponse);
+    }
+}