diff --git a/src/racket/src/string.c b/src/racket/src/string.c
index b574fdfcaa..44a7a94965 100644
--- a/src/racket/src/string.c
+++ b/src/racket/src/string.c
@@ -960,7 +960,8 @@ void scheme_out_of_string_range(const char *name, const char *which,
 		     "%s: %sindex %s out of range [%d, %d] for %s%s: %t",
 		     name, which,
 		     scheme_make_provided_string(i, 2, NULL),
-		     start, len,
+		     ((start < 0) ? 0 : start), 
+                     ((start < 0) ? (len - 1) : len),
 		     is_byte ? "byte-" : "",
                      SCHEME_CHAPERONE_VECTORP(s) ? "vector" : "string",
 		     sstr, slen);
diff --git a/src/racket/src/strops.inc b/src/racket/src/strops.inc
index fce37b914f..20b47c338f 100644
--- a/src/racket/src/strops.inc
+++ b/src/racket/src/strops.inc
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ X_(scheme_checked, string_ref) (int argc, Scheme_Object *argv[])
   i = scheme_extract_index(XSTRINGSTR "-ref", 1, argc, argv, len, 0);
 
   if (i >= len) {
-    scheme_out_of_string_range(XSTRINGSTR "-ref", "", argv[1], argv[0], 0, len - 1);
+    scheme_out_of_string_range(XSTRINGSTR "-ref", "", argv[1], argv[0], -1, len);
     return NULL;
   }