diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 814fe99ec7..544d393522 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
  * cqlsh: guess correct version of Python for Arch Linux (CASSANDRA-4090)
  * (CLI) properly handle quotes in create/update keyspace commands (CASSANDRA-4129)
  * Avoids possible deadlock during bootstrap (CASSANDRA-4159)
+ * fix stress tool that hangs forever on timeout or error (CASSANDRA-4128)
 
 
 1.0.9
diff --git a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Stress.java b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Stress.java
index 36f0410daa..c5e65f8f6e 100644
--- a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Stress.java
+++ b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/Stress.java
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ public final class Stress
         }
         else
         {
-            new StressAction(session, outStream).run();
+            new StressAction(session, outStream).start();
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
index 571d498f17..f0a9f49630 100644
--- a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
+++ b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/StressAction.java
@@ -137,6 +137,9 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
             }
         }
 
+        if (producer.isAlive())
+            producer.interrupt(); // if producer is still alive it means that we had errors in the consumers
+
         // marking an end of the output to the client
         output.println("END");
     }
@@ -161,7 +164,8 @@ public class StressAction extends Thread
                 }
                 catch (InterruptedException e)
                 {
-                    System.err.println("Producer error - " + e.getMessage());
+                    if (e.getMessage() != null)
+                        System.err.println("Producer error - " + e.getMessage());
                     return;
                 }
             }