diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserTests.java b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserTests.java
index 6a74d1a06..fae03eb83 100644
--- a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserTests.java
@@ -158,6 +158,18 @@ public class JobParserTests {
 		}
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testUnreachableStepInFlow() {
+		try {
+			new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
+					"org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserUnreachableStepInFlowTests-context.xml");
+			fail("Error expected");
+		}
+		catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException e) {
+			assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("The element [s4] is unreachable"));
+		}
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testNextOutOfScope() {
 		try {
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserUnreachableStepInFlowTests-context.xml b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserUnreachableStepInFlowTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..83b3dce25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/JobParserUnreachableStepInFlowTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch/spring-batch-2.0.xsd
+	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">
+
+	<beans:import resource="common-context.xml" />
+
+	<job id="job1">
+		<step id="s1" parent="step1" next="split1"/>
+		<split id="split1">
+			<flow>
+				<step id="s2" parent="step2"/>
+			</flow>
+			<flow>
+				<step id="s3" parent="step3"/>
+				<step id="s4" parent="step4"/>
+			</flow>
+		</split>
+	</job>
+
+</beans:beans>