diff --git a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/ss/usermodel/DataFormatter.java b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/ss/usermodel/DataFormatter.java
index 78d58e7767..c7725d3818 100644
--- a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/ss/usermodel/DataFormatter.java
+++ b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/ss/usermodel/DataFormatter.java
@@ -950,7 +950,14 @@ public class DataFormatter {
         if (numberFormat == null) {
             return Double.toString(d);
         }
-        String formatted = numberFormat.format(new BigDecimal(Double.toString(d)));
+        String formatted;
+        try {
+            //see https://github.com/apache/poi/pull/321 -- but this sometimes fails as Double.toString
+            //can produce strings that can't be parsed by BigDecimal
+            formatted = numberFormat.format(new BigDecimal(Double.toString(d)));
+        } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
+            formatted = numberFormat.format(d);
+        }
         return formatted.replaceFirst("E(\\d)", "E+$1"); // to match Excel's E-notation
     }