diff --git a/qa/evil-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/EvilThreadPoolTests.java b/qa/evil-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/EvilThreadPoolTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..c7848267ff17f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/evil-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/threadpool/EvilThreadPoolTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+/*
+ * 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.threadpool;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+
+import java.util.Optional;
+import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
+import java.util.function.Consumer;
+import java.util.function.Supplier;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasToString;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
+
+public class EvilThreadPoolTests extends ESTestCase {
+
+    private ThreadPool threadPool;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUpThreadPool() {
+        threadPool = new TestThreadPool(EvilThreadPoolTests.class.getName());
+    }
+
+    @After
+    public void tearDownThreadPool() throws InterruptedException {
+        terminate(threadPool);
+    }
+
+    public void testExecutionException() throws InterruptedException {
+        runExecutionExceptionTest(
+                () -> {
+                    throw new Error("future error");
+                },
+                true,
+                o -> {
+                    assertTrue(o.isPresent());
+                    assertThat(o.get(), instanceOf(Error.class));
+                    assertThat(o.get(), hasToString(containsString("future error")));
+                });
+        runExecutionExceptionTest(
+                () -> {
+                    throw new IllegalStateException("future exception");
+                },
+                false,
+                o -> assertFalse(o.isPresent()));
+    }
+
+    private void runExecutionExceptionTest(
+            final Runnable runnable,
+            final boolean expectThrowable,
+            final Consumer<Optional<Throwable>> consumer) throws InterruptedException {
+        final AtomicReference<Throwable> throwableReference = new AtomicReference<>();
+        final Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler uncaughtExceptionHandler = Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler();
+        final CountDownLatch uncaughtExceptionHandlerLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+
+        try {
+            Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler((t, e) -> {
+                assertTrue(expectThrowable);
+                throwableReference.set(e);
+                uncaughtExceptionHandlerLatch.countDown();
+            });
+
+            final CountDownLatch supplierLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+
+            threadPool.generic().submit(() -> {
+                try {
+                    runnable.run();
+                } finally {
+                    supplierLatch.countDown();
+                }
+            });
+
+            supplierLatch.await();
+
+            if (expectThrowable) {
+                uncaughtExceptionHandlerLatch.await();
+            }
+            consumer.accept(Optional.ofNullable(throwableReference.get()));
+        } finally {
+            Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(uncaughtExceptionHandler);
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/concurrent/ThreadContext.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/concurrent/ThreadContext.java
index 6427368c4b915..8f950c5434bd7 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/concurrent/ThreadContext.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/concurrent/ThreadContext.java
@@ -19,9 +19,11 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.util.CloseableThreadLocal;
+import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.Writeable;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.ESLoggerFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Setting;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Setting.Property;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
@@ -33,7 +35,12 @@
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.concurrent.CancellationException;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.FutureTask;
+import java.util.concurrent.RunnableFuture;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 import java.util.function.Supplier;
@@ -564,6 +571,36 @@ public void run() {
                 ctx.restore();
                 whileRunning = true;
                 in.run();
+                if (in instanceof RunnableFuture) {
+                    /*
+                     * The wrapped runnable arose from asynchronous submission of a task to an executor. If an uncaught exception was thrown
+                     * during the execution of this task, we need to inspect this runnable and see if it is an error that should be
+                     * propagated to the uncaught exception handler.
+                     */
+                    try {
+                        ((RunnableFuture) in).get();
+                    } catch (final Exception e) {
+                        /*
+                         * In theory, Future#get can only throw a cancellation exception, an interrupted exception, or an execution
+                         * exception. We want to ignore cancellation exceptions, restore the interrupt status on interrupted exceptions, and
+                         * inspect the cause of an execution. We are going to be extra paranoid here though and completely unwrap the
+                         * exception to ensure that there is not a buried error anywhere. We assume that a general exception has been
+                         * handled by the executed task or the task submitter.
+                         */
+                        assert e instanceof CancellationException
+                                || e instanceof InterruptedException
+                                || e instanceof ExecutionException : e;
+                        final Optional<Error> maybeError = ExceptionsHelper.maybeError(e, ESLoggerFactory.getLogger(ThreadContext.class));
+                        if (maybeError.isPresent()) {
+                            // throw this error where it will propagate to the uncaught exception handler
+                            throw maybeError.get();
+                        }
+                        if (e instanceof InterruptedException) {
+                            // restore the interrupt status
+                            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
                 whileRunning = false;
             } catch (IllegalStateException ex) {
                 if (whileRunning || threadLocal.closed.get() == false) {