diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
index 4a9852b72..cd367da70 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/meta.pm
@@ -162,6 +162,9 @@ sub preprocess (@) {
 				error(sprintf(gettext('cannot parse date/time: %s'), $value));
 			}
 		}
+		else {
+			error $@;
+		}
 	}
 	elsif ($key eq 'updated') {
 		eval q{use Date::Parse};
@@ -174,6 +177,9 @@ sub preprocess (@) {
 				error(sprintf(gettext('cannot parse date/time: %s'), $value));
 			}
 		}
+		else {
+			error $@;
+		}
 	}
 
 	if (! defined wantarray) {