See java.lang.Throwable.initCause():

public synchronized Throwable initCause(Throwable cause)

{ if (this.cause != this) throw new IllegalStateException("Can't overwrite cause"); if (cause == this) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Self-causation not permitted"); this.cause = cause; return this; }

Some exceptions set this.cause to null, e.g., java.rmi.RemoteException():

public RemoteException(String s, Throwable cause)

{ super(s); initCause(null); // Disallow subsequent initCause detail = cause; }

The problem surfaced with the failure of org.jboss.test.naming.test.NamingRestartUnitTestCase.testBadBindingLookup(), in the AS testsuite, which attempts to transmit an instance of org.jboss.test.naming.restart.NoSuchObjectException:

public class NonDeserializable implements Serializable
{
private static final long serialVersionUID = 0L;

private void writeObject(java.io.ObjectOutputStream out)
throws IOException

{ out.defaultWriteObject(); }

private void readObject(java.io.ObjectInputStream in)
throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException

{ throw new java.rmi.NoSuchObjectException("Let's see how this is handled"); }

}