Index: jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/db/DbDataStore.java
===================================================================
--- jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/db/DbDataStore.java	(revision 652352)
+++ jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/db/DbDataStore.java	(working copy)
@@ -457,6 +457,9 @@
      * @param minRecordLength the length
      */
     public void setMinRecordLength(int minRecordLength) {
+        if (minRecordLength > MAXIMUM_MIN_RECORD_LENGTH) {
+            minRecordLength = MAXIMUM_MIN_RECORD_LENGTH;
+        }
         this.minRecordLength = minRecordLength;
     }
 
Index: jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/DataStore.java
===================================================================
--- jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/DataStore.java	(revision 652352)
+++ jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/DataStore.java	(working copy)
@@ -35,6 +35,14 @@
 public interface DataStore {
 
     /**
+     * There is a limitation on the minRecordLength: the maximum value is around
+     * 32000. The reason for this is that Java doesn't support strings longer
+     * than 64 KB in DataOutputStream.writeUTF, which is used when writing
+     * the hex encoded version of small records.
+     */
+    int MAXIMUM_MIN_RECORD_LENGTH = 32000;
+
+    /**
      * Returns the identified data record. The given identifier should be
      * the identifier of a previously saved data record. Since records are
      * never removed, there should never be cases where the identified record
Index: jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/FileDataStore.java
===================================================================
--- jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/FileDataStore.java	(revision 652352)
+++ jackrabbit-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/data/FileDataStore.java	(working copy)
@@ -367,6 +367,9 @@
      * @param minRecordLength the length
      */
     public void setMinRecordLength(int minRecordLength) {
+        if (minRecordLength > MAXIMUM_MIN_RECORD_LENGTH) {
+            minRecordLength = MAXIMUM_MIN_RECORD_LENGTH;
+        }
         this.minRecordLength = minRecordLength;
     }