diff --git a/swift/container/sharder.py b/swift/container/sharder.py
index 76dcc4172a..f1b3e80230 100644
--- a/swift/container/sharder.py
+++ b/swift/container/sharder.py
@@ -1527,10 +1527,11 @@ class ContainerSharder(ContainerReplicator):
                     self._increment_stat('visited', 'success', statsd=True)
                 else:
                     self._increment_stat('visited', 'skipped')
-            except (Exception, Timeout) as error:
+            except (Exception, Timeout) as err:
                 self._increment_stat('visited', 'failure', statsd=True)
                 self.logger.exception(
-                    'Unhandled exception while processing %s: %s', path, error)
+                    'Unhandled exception while processing %s: %s', path, err)
+                error = err
             try:
                 self._record_sharding_progress(broker, node, error)
             except (Exception, Timeout) as error:
diff --git a/test/unit/obj/test_expirer.py b/test/unit/obj/test_expirer.py
index 8df8936234..0f312813db 100644
--- a/test/unit/obj/test_expirer.py
+++ b/test/unit/obj/test_expirer.py
@@ -744,10 +744,9 @@ class TestObjectExpirer(TestCase):
             x.run_once = raise_exceptions
             x.run_forever()
         except SystemExit as err:
-            pass
+            self.assertEqual(str(err), 'exiting exception 2')
         finally:
             expirer.sleep = orig_sleep
-        self.assertEqual(str(err), 'exiting exception 2')
         self.assertEqual(x.logger.get_lines_for_level('error'),
                          ['Unhandled exception: '])
         log_args, log_kwargs = x.logger.log_dict['error'][0]