diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
index 12b2da120f63e..c5dcfe5588ca6 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
@@ -309,10 +309,10 @@ private ParsedQuery toQuery(QueryBuilder queryBuilder, CheckedFunction<QueryBuil
         try {
             QueryBuilder rewriteQuery = Rewriteable.rewrite(queryBuilder, this, true);
             return new ParsedQuery(filterOrQuery.apply(rewriteQuery), copyNamedQueries());
-        } catch(QueryShardException | ParsingException e ) {
+        } catch(QueryShardException | ParsingException e) {
             throw e;
         } catch(Exception e) {
-            throw new QueryShardException(this, "failed to create query: {}", e, queryBuilder);
+            throw new QueryShardException(this, "failed to create query: {}", e, e.getMessage());
         } finally {
             reset();
         }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContextTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContextTests.java
index 0f9ccfa86f1aa..8e57ad50bd1cd 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContextTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContextTests.java
@@ -18,12 +18,15 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.index.query;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetaData;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.NamedWriteableRegistry;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.BigArrays;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.NamedXContentRegistry;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexFieldData;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.AbstractAtomicOrdinalsFieldData;
@@ -73,6 +76,43 @@ public void testFailIfFieldMappingNotFound() {
         assertThat(result.name(), equalTo("name"));
     }
 
+    public void testToQueryFails() {
+        QueryShardContext context = createQueryShardContext(IndexMetaData.INDEX_UUID_NA_VALUE, null);
+        Exception exc = expectThrows(Exception.class,
+            () -> context.toQuery(new AbstractQueryBuilder() {
+                @Override
+                public String getWriteableName() {
+                    return null;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                protected void doWriteTo(StreamOutput out) throws IOException {
+
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                protected void doXContent(XContentBuilder builder, Params params) throws IOException {
+
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
+                    throw new RuntimeException("boom");
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                protected boolean doEquals(AbstractQueryBuilder other) {
+                    return false;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                protected int doHashCode() {
+                    return 0;
+                }
+            }));
+        assertThat(exc.getMessage(), equalTo("failed to create query: boom"));
+    }
+
     public void testClusterAlias() throws IOException {
         final String clusterAlias = randomBoolean() ? null : "remote_cluster";
         QueryShardContext context = createQueryShardContext(IndexMetaData.INDEX_UUID_NA_VALUE, clusterAlias);