diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 6b74ad12b6..2fa0142f87 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+Tue Oct 23 06:21:05 2012  Aaron Patterson <aaron@tenderlovemaking.com>
+
+	* ext/psych/parser.c: just get the constant defined in Ruby.
+
+	* ext/psych/lib/psych/syntax_error.rb: Psych::SyntaxError now inherits
+	  from StandardError rather than SyntaxError.  Thanks Eric Hodel!
+
+	* test/psych/test_exception.rb: tests for change.
+
 Tue Oct 23 06:17:36 2012  Aaron Patterson <aaron@tenderlovemaking.com>
 
 	* ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb: Cache symbols while
diff --git a/ext/psych/lib/psych/syntax_error.rb b/ext/psych/lib/psych/syntax_error.rb
index f79743dba4..f972256f9e 100644
--- a/ext/psych/lib/psych/syntax_error.rb
+++ b/ext/psych/lib/psych/syntax_error.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 module Psych
-  class SyntaxError < ::SyntaxError
+  class Error < RuntimeError
+  end
+
+  class SyntaxError < Error
     attr_reader :file, :line, :column, :offset, :problem, :context
 
     def initialize file, line, col, offset, problem, context
diff --git a/ext/psych/parser.c b/ext/psych/parser.c
index 0908a1b49f..8c65ce1307 100644
--- a/ext/psych/parser.c
+++ b/ext/psych/parser.c
@@ -557,7 +557,7 @@ void Init_psych_parser()
     rb_define_const(cPsychParser, "UTF16BE", INT2NUM(YAML_UTF16BE_ENCODING));
 
     rb_require("psych/syntax_error");
-    ePsychSyntaxError = rb_define_class_under(mPsych, "SyntaxError", rb_eSyntaxError);
+    ePsychSyntaxError = rb_const_get(mPsych, rb_intern("SyntaxError"));
 
     rb_define_method(cPsychParser, "parse", parse, -1);
     rb_define_method(cPsychParser, "mark", mark, 0);
diff --git a/test/psych/test_exception.rb b/test/psych/test_exception.rb
index c6d98d7a99..5615fc2db4 100644
--- a/test/psych/test_exception.rb
+++ b/test/psych/test_exception.rb
@@ -126,5 +126,26 @@ module Psych
       assert_equal 1, w.foo
       assert_nil w.bar
     end
+
+    def test_psych_syntax_error
+      Tempfile.open(['parsefile', 'yml']) do |t|
+        t.binmode
+        t.write '--- `'
+        t.close
+
+        begin
+          Psych.parse_file t.path
+        rescue StandardError
+          assert true # count assertion
+        ensure
+          return unless $!
+
+          ancestors = $!.class.ancestors.inspect
+
+          flunk "Psych::SyntaxError not rescued by StandardError: #{ancestors}"
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
   end
 end