94cc52
@@ -94,6 +94,11 @@
extends InputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable, Result> {
   public RecordReader<ImmutableBytesWritable, Result> createRecordReader(
       InputSplit split, TaskAttemptContext context)
   throws IOException {
+    if (table == null) {
+      throw new IOException("Cannot create a record reader because of a" +
+          " previous error. Please look at the previous logs lines from" +
+          " the task's full log for more details.");
+    }
     TableSplit tSplit = (TableSplit) split;
     TableRecordReader trr = this.tableRecordReader;
     // if no table record reader was provided use default
