diff --git a/django/http/__init__.py b/django/http/__init__.py
index c6205ec953..60a92d5f1c 100644
--- a/django/http/__init__.py
+++ b/django/http/__init__.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 import datetime
 import os
 import re
+import sys
 import time
 import warnings
 
@@ -177,6 +178,8 @@ def build_request_repr(request, path_override=None, GET_override=None,
                       unicode(cookies),
                       unicode(meta)))
 
+class UnreadablePostError(IOError):
+    pass
 
 class HttpRequest(object):
     """A basic HTTP request."""
@@ -321,7 +324,10 @@ class HttpRequest(object):
         if not hasattr(self, '_body'):
             if self._read_started:
                 raise Exception("You cannot access body after reading from request's data stream")
-            self._body = self.read()
+            try:
+                self._body = self.read()
+            except IOError, e:
+                raise UnreadablePostError, e, sys.exc_traceback
             self._stream = StringIO(self._body)
         return self._body
 
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
index e71c6f6eaa..d4239448dd 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/requests/tests.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from __future__ import with_statement
+
 import time
 import warnings
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
@@ -6,7 +8,7 @@ from StringIO import StringIO
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.handlers.modpython import ModPythonRequest
 from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIRequest, LimitedStream
-from django.http import HttpRequest, HttpResponse, parse_cookie, build_request_repr
+from django.http import HttpRequest, HttpResponse, parse_cookie, build_request_repr, UnreadablePostError
 from django.test.utils import get_warnings_state, restore_warnings_state
 from django.utils import unittest
 from django.utils.http import cookie_date
@@ -430,3 +432,21 @@ class RequestsTests(unittest.TestCase):
             self.assertEqual(request.body, request.raw_post_data)
         finally:
             restore_warnings_state(warnings_state)
+
+
+    def test_POST_connection_error(self):
+        """
+        If wsgi.input.read() raises an exception while trying to read() the
+        POST, the exception should be identifiable (not a generic IOError).
+        """
+        class ExplodingStringIO(StringIO):
+            def read(self, len=0):
+                raise IOError("kaboom!")
+
+        payload = 'name=value'
+        request = WSGIRequest({'REQUEST_METHOD': 'POST',
+                               'CONTENT_LENGTH': len(payload),
+                               'wsgi.input': ExplodingStringIO(payload)})
+
+        with self.assertRaises(UnreadablePostError):
+            request.raw_post_data