Index: test/test_index
===================================================================
--- test/test_index	(revision 2628)
+++ test/test_index	(working copy)
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
 testNoMethodError.rb
 testCacheMapLeak.rb
 testPipe.rb
+testBigDecimal.rb
 
 # MRI Ruby tests (from sample/test.rb in Matz's Ruby Interpreter):
 
Index: src/org/jruby/RubyBigDecimal.java
===================================================================
--- src/org/jruby/RubyBigDecimal.java	(revision 2628)
+++ src/org/jruby/RubyBigDecimal.java	(working copy)
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
  * rights and limitations under the License.
  *
  * Copyright (C) 2006 Ola Bini <ola@ologix.com>
+ * Copyright (C) 2006 Miguel Covarrubias <mlcovarrubias@gmail.com>
  * 
  * Alternatively, the contents of this file may be used under the terms of
  * either of the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later (the "GPL"),
@@ -140,6 +141,10 @@
     }
 
     public static RubyBigDecimal newCreate(IRubyObject recv, IRubyObject[] args) {
+        // MRI wants its first argument to be String-like and will throw a TypeError
+        // if it does not respond to #to_str (JRUBY-153) 
+        args[0] = args[0].convertToString();
+        
         RubyBigDecimal result = new RubyBigDecimal(recv.getRuntime());
         result.callInit(args);
         return result;
@@ -312,7 +317,6 @@
 
     public IRubyObject exponent() {
         BigDecimal abs = value.abs();
-        String unscaled = abs.unscaledValue().toString();
         int exponent = abs.toString().indexOf('.');
         return getRuntime().newFixnum(exponent);
     }