diff --git a/src/file.js b/src/file.js
index 640928e428..307305fc4d 100644
--- a/src/file.js
+++ b/src/file.js
@@ -8,12 +8,13 @@ node.fs.cat = function (path, encoding, callback) {
   var file = new node.fs.File({encoding: encoding});
 
   file.onError = function (method, errno, msg) {
+    //node.debug("cat error");
     callback(-1);
   };
 
   var content = (encoding == node.constants.UTF8 ? "" : []);
   var pos = 0;
-  var chunkSize = 10*1024;
+  var chunkSize = 16*1024;
 
   function readChunk () {
     file.read(chunkSize, pos, function (chunk) {
@@ -32,10 +33,8 @@ node.fs.cat = function (path, encoding, callback) {
     });
   }
 
-  file.open(path, "r", function () {
-    readChunk();
-  });
-}
+  file.open(path, "r", function () { readChunk(); });
+};
 
 node.fs.File = function (options) {
   var self = this;
@@ -71,7 +70,11 @@ node.fs.File = function (options) {
 
     var errno = arguments[0]; 
 
-    if (errno < 0) {
+    //node.debug("poll errno: " + JSON.stringify(errno));
+    //node.debug("poll action: " + JSON.stringify(action));
+    //node.debug("poll rest: " + JSON.stringify(rest));
+
+    if (errno !== 0) {
       if (self.onError)
         self.onError(action.method, errno, node.fs.strerror(errno));
       actionQueue = []; // empty the queue.
@@ -82,9 +85,6 @@ node.fs.File = function (options) {
     for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++)
       rest.push(arguments[i]);
 
-    //node.debug("poll action: " + JSON.stringify(action));
-    //node.debug("poll rest: " + JSON.stringify(rest));
-
     if (action.callback)
       action.callback.apply(this, rest);
 
diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index e3d9d1688c..1e81684fc9 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ clearInterval = clearTimeout;
   function loadScript (filename, target, callback) {
     node.fs.cat(filename, "utf8", function (status, content) {
       if (status != 0) {
-        stderr.puts("Error reading " + filename + ": " + node.fs.strerror(status));
+        stderr.puts("Error reading " + filename);
         node.exit(1);
       }
       
diff --git a/test/test-cat-noexist.js b/test/test-cat-noexist.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..961f6ecf5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test-cat-noexist.js
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+include("mjsunit");
+
+function onLoad () {
+  var dirname = node.path.dirname(__filename);
+  var fixtures = node.path.join(dirname, "fixtures");
+  var filename = node.path.join(fixtures, "does_not_exist.txt");
+
+  node.fs.cat(filename, "raw", function (status, data) {
+    assertTrue(status != 0);
+  });
+};