diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageBundle.java b/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageBundle.java
index 3153486cd..a28769cd3 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageBundle.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageBundle.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 //
-// $Id: MessageBundle.java,v 1.7 2002/03/27 21:52:41 mdb Exp $
+// $Id: MessageBundle.java,v 1.8 2002/04/30 17:45:27 mdb Exp $
 
 package com.threerings.util;
 
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ public class MessageBundle
      */
     public String get (String key)
     {
+        // if we were unable to resolve our resource bundle, we can't do
+        // any translations
+        if (_bundle == null) {
+            return key;
+        }
+
         // if this string is tainted, we don't translate it, instead we
         // simply remove the taint character and return it to the caller
         if (key.startsWith(TAINT_CHAR)) {
@@ -111,6 +117,12 @@ public class MessageBundle
      */
     public String get (String key, Object[] args)
     {
+        // if we were unable to resolve our resource bundle, we can't do
+        // any translations
+        if (_bundle == null) {
+            return key + StringUtil.toString(args);
+        }
+
         try {
             String message = _bundle.getString(key);
             return MessageFormat.format(message, args);
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageManager.java b/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageManager.java
index ca7a84e64..9364c5579 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageManager.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/util/MessageManager.java
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 //
-// $Id: MessageManager.java,v 1.1 2002/01/29 20:44:35 mdb Exp $
+// $Id: MessageManager.java,v 1.2 2002/04/30 17:45:27 mdb Exp $
 
 package com.threerings.util;
 
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.MissingResourceException;
 import java.util.ResourceBundle;
 
 /**
@@ -80,13 +81,17 @@ public class MessageManager
 
         // if it's not cached, we'll need to resolve it
         String fqpath = _prefix + path;
-        ResourceBundle rbundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle(fqpath, _locale);
-        if (rbundle == null) {
+        ResourceBundle rbundle = null;
+        try {
+            rbundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle(fqpath, _locale);
+        } catch (MissingResourceException mre) {
             Log.warning("Unable to resolve resource bundle " +
-                        "[path=" + fqpath + "].");
+                        "[path=" + fqpath + ", locale=" + _locale + "].");
         }
 
-        // create our message bundle, cache it and return it
+        // create our message bundle, cache it and return it (if we
+        // couldn't resolve the bundle, the message bundle will cope with
+        // it's null resource bundle)
         bundle = new MessageBundle(path, rbundle);
         _cache.put(path, bundle);
         return bundle;