Index: src/org/jruby/RubyThread.java
===================================================================
--- src/org/jruby/RubyThread.java	(revision 4781)
+++ src/org/jruby/RubyThread.java	(working copy)
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@
         }
     }
 
-    private RubyThread(Ruby runtime, RubyClass type) {
+    protected RubyThread(Ruby runtime, RubyClass type) {
         super(runtime, type);
         this.threadService = runtime.getThreadService();
         // set to default thread group
@@ -682,14 +682,16 @@
     public void exceptionRaised(RaiseException exception) {
         assert isCurrent();
 
-        Ruby runtime = exception.getException().getRuntime();
-        if (abortOnException(runtime)) {
+        RubyException rubyException = exception.getException();
+        Ruby runtime = rubyException.getRuntime();
+        if (rubyException.getMetaClass() == runtime.getClass("SystemExit")) {
+            threadService.getMainThread().raise(new IRubyObject[] {rubyException}, Block.NULL_BLOCK);
+        } else if (abortOnException(runtime)) {
             // FIXME: printError explodes on some nullpointer
             //getRuntime().getRuntime().printError(exception.getException());
-        	// TODO: Doesn't SystemExit have its own method to make this less wordy..
-            RubyException re = RubyException.newException(getRuntime(), getRuntime().getClass("SystemExit"), exception.getMessage());
-            re.setInstanceVariable("status", getRuntime().newFixnum(1));
-            threadService.getMainThread().raise(new IRubyObject[]{re}, Block.NULL_BLOCK);
+            RubyException systemExit = RubySystemExit.newInstance(runtime, 1);
+            systemExit.message = rubyException.message;
+            threadService.getMainThread().raise(new IRubyObject[] {systemExit}, Block.NULL_BLOCK);
             return;
         } else if (runtime.getDebug().isTrue()) {
             runtime.printError(exception.getException());
Index: src/org/jruby/Ruby.java
===================================================================
--- src/org/jruby/Ruby.java	(revision 4781)
+++ src/org/jruby/Ruby.java	(working copy)
@@ -1703,9 +1703,7 @@
     }
 
     public RaiseException newSystemExit(int status) {
-        RubyClass exc = getClass("SystemExit");
-        IRubyObject[]exArgs = new IRubyObject[]{newFixnum(status), newString("exit")};
-        return new RaiseException((RubyException)exc.newInstance(exArgs, Block.NULL_BLOCK));
+        return new RaiseException(RubySystemExit.newInstance(this, status));
     }
 
     public RaiseException newIOError(String message) {
Index: src/org/jruby/RubySystemExit.java
===================================================================
--- src/org/jruby/RubySystemExit.java	(revision 4781)
+++ src/org/jruby/RubySystemExit.java	(working copy)
@@ -51,6 +51,14 @@
         return systemExitClass;
     }    
 
+    public static RubySystemExit newInstance(Ruby runtime, int status) {
+        RubyClass exc = runtime.getClass("SystemExit");
+        IRubyObject[] exArgs = new IRubyObject[] {
+                runtime.newFixnum(status),
+                runtime.newString("exit") };
+        return (RubySystemExit) exc.newInstance(exArgs, Block.NULL_BLOCK);
+    }
+
     protected RubySystemExit(Ruby runtime, RubyClass exceptionClass) {
         super(runtime, exceptionClass);
         status = runtime.getNil();
@@ -78,4 +86,4 @@
         return getRuntime().getFalse();
     }
 
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}