diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
index 463d19f8c..7e9ed483d 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
@@ -163,8 +163,9 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
     public void setDestFile(File jarFile) {
         super.setDestFile(jarFile);
         if (jarFile.exists()) {
+            ZipFile zf = null;
             try {
-                ZipFile zf = new ZipFile(jarFile);
+                zf = new ZipFile(jarFile);
 
                 // must not use getEntry as "well behaving" applications
                 // must accept the manifest in any capitalization
@@ -174,13 +175,22 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
                     if (ze.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("META-INF/MANIFEST.MF")) {
                         originalManifest = 
                             getManifest(new InputStreamReader(zf
-                                                         .getInputStream(ze)));
+                                                              .getInputStream(ze)));
                     }
                 }
             } catch (Throwable t) {
                 log("error while reading original manifest: " + t.getMessage(),
                     Project.MSG_WARN);
+            } finally {
+                if (zf != null) {
+                    try {
+                        zf.close();
+                    } catch (IOException e) {
+                        // XXX - log an error?  throw an exception?
+                    }
+                }
             }
+            
         }
     }