diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index c6289846c2..94a9f884cf 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -254,6 +254,10 @@ Branch-2 ( Unreleased changes )
 
     HADOOP-8541. Better high-percentile latency metrics. (Andrew Wang via atm)
 
+    HADOOP-8362. Improve exception message when Configuration.set() is
+    called with a null key or value. (Madhukara Phatak
+    and Suresh Srinivas via harsh)
+
   BUG FIXES
 
     HADOOP-8372. NetUtils.normalizeHostName() incorrectly handles hostname
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
index 068076a4ef..37a6b73fe8 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
 import org.w3c.dom.Text;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
+import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 
 /** 
  * Provides access to configuration parameters.
@@ -781,8 +782,15 @@ public void set(String name, String value) {
    * @param value property value.
    * @param source the place that this configuration value came from 
    * (For debugging).
+   * @throws IllegalArgumentException when the value or name is null.
    */
   public void set(String name, String value, String source) {
+    Preconditions.checkArgument(
+        name != null,
+        "Property name must not be null");
+    Preconditions.checkArgument(
+        value != null,
+        "Property value must not be null");
     if (deprecatedKeyMap.isEmpty()) {
       getProps();
     }
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
index b8e2873c8c..576d921000 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
@@ -1065,6 +1065,26 @@ public void testGetClassesShouldReturnEmptyArray()
         "Not returning expected number of classes. Number of returned classes ="
             + classes.length, 0, classes.length);
   }
+  
+  public void testSettingValueNull() throws Exception {
+    Configuration config = new Configuration();
+    try {
+      config.set("testClassName", null);
+      fail("Should throw an IllegalArgumentException exception ");
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      assertTrue(e instanceof IllegalArgumentException);
+    }
+  }
+
+  public void testSettingKeyNull() throws Exception {
+    Configuration config = new Configuration();
+    try {
+      config.set(null, "test");
+      fail("Should throw an IllegalArgumentException exception ");
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      assertTrue(e instanceof IllegalArgumentException);
+    }
+  }
 
   public void testInvalidSubstitutation() {
     String key = "test.random.key";