diff --git a/lib/timeout.rb b/lib/timeout.rb
index 63a6299..80c0d0c 100644
--- a/lib/timeout.rb
+++ b/lib/timeout.rb
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ module Timeout
   #         value of 0 or +nil+ will execute the block without any timeout.
   # +klass+:: Exception Class to raise if the block fails to terminate
   #           in +sec+ seconds.  Omitting will use the default, Timeout::Error
+  # +message+:: Error message to rasise with Exception Class.
+  #             Omitting will use the default, "execution expired"
   #
   # Returns the result of the block *if* the block completed before
   # +sec+ seconds, otherwise throws an exception, based on the value of +klass+.
@@ -69,9 +71,9 @@ module Timeout
   # Note that this is both a method of module Timeout, so you can <tt>include
   # Timeout</tt> into your classes so they have a #timeout method, as well as
   # a module method, so you can call it directly as Timeout.timeout().
-  def timeout(sec, klass = nil)   #:yield: +sec+
+  def timeout(sec, klass = nil, message = nil)   #:yield: +sec+
     return yield(sec) if sec == nil or sec.zero?
-    message = "execution expired".freeze
+    message ||= "execution expired".freeze
     e = Error
     bl = proc do |exception|
       begin
diff --git a/test/test_timeout.rb b/test/test_timeout.rb
index 88a9b82..47053db 100644
--- a/test/test_timeout.rb
+++ b/test/test_timeout.rb
@@ -65,6 +65,11 @@ class TestTimeout < Test::Unit::TestCase
         sleep 3
       end
     end
+    assert_raise_with_message(err, /connection to rubylang.org expired/) do
+      Timeout.timeout 0.01, err, "connection to rubylang.org expired" do
+        sleep 3
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   def test_exit_exception