diff --git a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/java/akka/actor/InboxJavaAPITest.java b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/java/akka/actor/InboxJavaAPITest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7535fcc663
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/java/akka/actor/InboxJavaAPITest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2014 Typesafe Inc. <http://www.typesafe.com>
+ */
+
+package akka.actor;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+import org.junit.ClassRule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import akka.testkit.AkkaJUnitActorSystemResource;
+import akka.testkit.AkkaSpec;
+import scala.concurrent.duration.FiniteDuration;
+
+public class InboxJavaAPITest {
+
+  @ClassRule
+  public static AkkaJUnitActorSystemResource actorSystemResource = new AkkaJUnitActorSystemResource("InboxJavaAPITest",
+      AkkaSpec.testConf());
+
+  private final ActorSystem system = actorSystemResource.getSystem();
+
+  @Test(expected = TimeoutException.class)
+  public void mustBeAbleToThrowTimeoutException() throws TimeoutException {
+    Inbox inbox = Inbox.create(system);
+    inbox.receive(new FiniteDuration(10, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorDSL.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorDSL.scala
index 1e8a6f003f..f620159f6c 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorDSL.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorDSL.scala
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ abstract class Inbox {
    * up to the specified duration to await reception of a message. If no message
    * is received a [[java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException]] will be raised.
    */
+  @throws(classOf[java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException])
   def receive(max: FiniteDuration): Any
 
   /**
diff --git a/akka-docs/rst/java/code/docs/actor/InboxDocTest.java b/akka-docs/rst/java/code/docs/actor/InboxDocTest.java
index be3ad97df7..017e49b51e 100644
--- a/akka-docs/rst/java/code/docs/actor/InboxDocTest.java
+++ b/akka-docs/rst/java/code/docs/actor/InboxDocTest.java
@@ -38,7 +38,11 @@ public class InboxDocTest {
     probe.expectMsgEquals("hello");
     probe.send(probe.getLastSender(), "world");
     //#inbox
-    assert inbox.receive(Duration.create(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).equals("world");
+    try {
+      assert inbox.receive(Duration.create(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).equals("world");
+    } catch (java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException e) {
+      // timeout
+    }
     //#inbox
   }
   
@@ -50,7 +54,11 @@ public class InboxDocTest {
     final Inbox inbox = Inbox.create(system);
     inbox.watch(target);
     target.tell(PoisonPill.getInstance(), ActorRef.noSender());
-    assert inbox.receive(Duration.create(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) instanceof Terminated;
+    try {
+      assert inbox.receive(Duration.create(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) instanceof Terminated;
+    } catch (java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException e) {
+      // timeout
+    }
     //#watch
   }