diff --git a/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb b/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
index 8192d4719..cfc6b5a0b 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/configurer/plugin_handler.rb
@@ -1,26 +1,26 @@
 # Break out the code related to plugins.  This module is
 # just included into the agent, but having it here makes it
 # easier to test.
 module Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler
   def download_plugins?
     Puppet[:pluginsync]
   end
 
   # Retrieve facts from the central server.
   def download_plugins
     return nil unless download_plugins?
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.new("plugin", Puppet[:plugindest], Puppet[:pluginsource], Puppet[:pluginsignore]).evaluate.each { |file| load_plugin(file) }
   end
 
   def load_plugin(file)
     return unless FileTest.exist?(file)
     return if FileTest.directory?(file)
 
     begin
       Puppet.info "Loading downloaded plugin #{file}"
       load file
-    rescue StandardError, LoadError => detail
+    rescue Exception => detail
       Puppet.err "Could not load downloaded file #{file}: #{detail}"
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb b/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
index 1423ae4b5..30b135e8f 100755
--- a/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/configurer/plugin_handler_spec.rb
@@ -1,112 +1,116 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env ruby
 
 require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../spec_helper'
 require 'puppet/configurer'
 require 'puppet/configurer/plugin_handler'
 
 class PluginHandlerTester
   include Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler
 end
 
 describe Puppet::Configurer::PluginHandler do
   before do
     @pluginhandler = PluginHandlerTester.new
+
+    # PluginHandler#load_plugin has an extra-strong rescue clause
+    # this mock is to make sure that we don't silently ignore errors
+    Puppet.expects(:err).never
   end
 
   it "should have a method for downloading plugins" do
     @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:download_plugins)
   end
 
   it "should have a boolean method for determining whether plugins should be downloaded" do
     @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:download_plugins?)
   end
 
   it "should download plugins when :pluginsync is true" do
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsync).returns true
     @pluginhandler.should be_download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should not download plugins when :pluginsync is false" do
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsync).returns false
     @pluginhandler.should_not be_download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should not download plugins when downloading is disabled" do
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).never
     @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns false
     @pluginhandler.download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should use an Agent Downloader, with the name, source, destination, and ignore set correctly, to download plugins when downloading is enabled" do
     downloader = mock 'downloader'
 
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsource).returns "psource"
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:plugindest).returns "pdest"
     Puppet.settings.expects(:value).with(:pluginsignore).returns "pignore"
 
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).with("plugin", "pdest", "psource", "pignore").returns downloader
 
     downloader.expects(:evaluate).returns []
 
     @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns true
     @pluginhandler.download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should be able to load plugins" do
     @pluginhandler.should respond_to(:load_plugin)
   end
 
   it "should load each downloaded file" do
     FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
     downloader = mock 'downloader'
 
     Puppet::Configurer::Downloader.expects(:new).returns downloader
 
     downloader.expects(:evaluate).returns %w{one two}
 
     @pluginhandler.expects(:download_plugins?).returns true
 
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load_plugin).with("one")
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load_plugin).with("two")
 
     @pluginhandler.download_plugins
   end
 
   it "should load plugins when asked to do so" do
     FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo")
 
     @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
   end
 
   it "should not try to load files that don't exist" do
     FileTest.expects(:exist?).with("foo").returns false
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load).never
 
     @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
   end
 
   it "should not try to load directories" do
     FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
     FileTest.expects(:directory?).with("foo").returns true
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load).never
 
     @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
   end
 
   it "should warn but not fail if loading a file raises an exception" do
     FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo").raises "eh"
 
     Puppet.expects(:err)
     @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
   end
 
   it "should warn but not fail if loading a file raises a LoadError" do
     FileTest.stubs(:exist?).returns true
     @pluginhandler.expects(:load).with("foo").raises LoadError.new("eh")
 
     Puppet.expects(:err)
     @pluginhandler.load_plugin("foo")
   end
 end