diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 9646a494e..f763f6f5a 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -117,11 +117,33 @@
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-        <configuration>
-          <includes>
-            <include>**/*Test.java</include>
-          </includes>
-        </configuration>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>default-test</id>
+            <configuration>
+              <includes>
+                <include>**/*Test.java</include>
+              </includes>
+              <excludes>
+                <exclude>**/*WithoutBeanUtilsTest.java</exclude>
+              </excludes>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+          <execution>
+            <id>without-beanutils-test</id>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>test</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <includes>
+                <include>**/*WithoutBeanUtilsTest.java</include>
+              </includes>
+              <classpathDependencyExcludes>
+                <classpathDependencyExclude>commons-beanutils:commons-beanutils</classpathDependencyExclude>
+              </classpathDependencyExcludes>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverter.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverter.java
index 482de3d88..5a3540224 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverter.java
@@ -141,7 +141,13 @@ public boolean canConvert(final Object object, final Class toType) {
         if (object instanceof Pointer) {
             return canConvert(((Pointer) object).getValue(), useType);
         }
-        return ConvertUtils.lookup(useType) != null;
+
+        try {
+            ClassLoaderUtil.getClass("org.apache.commons.beanutils.ConvertUtils");
+            return ConvertUtils.lookup(useType) != null;
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+          return false;
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -268,9 +274,15 @@ public Object convert(final Object object, final Class toType) {
             }
         }
 
-        final Converter converter = ConvertUtils.lookup(useType);
-        if (converter != null) {
-            return converter.convert(useType, object);
+        try {
+            ClassLoaderUtil.getClass("org.apache.commons.beanutils.ConvertUtils");
+
+            final Converter converter = ConvertUtils.lookup(useType);
+            if (converter != null) {
+                return converter.convert(useType, object);
+            }
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+            // Fall through to conversation error.
         }
 
         throw new JXPathTypeConversionException("Cannot convert "
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverterWithoutBeanUtilsTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverterWithoutBeanUtilsTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f2da81063
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/jxpath/util/BasicTypeConverterWithoutBeanUtilsTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.commons.jxpath.util;
+
+import java.math.BigDecimal;
+
+/**
+ * Tests BasicTypeConverter (without common-beanutils) - all other tests from
+ * BasicTypeConverterTest should still run, but trying to convert anything
+ * needing BeanUtils should fail.
+ *
+ * @author Tobias Gruetzmacher
+ * @version $Revision$ $Date$
+ */
+public class BasicTypeConverterWithoutBeanUtilsTest extends BasicTypeConverterTest {
+
+    public void testBeanUtilsConverter() {
+        assertFalse("Cannot convert: String to BigDecimal without BeanUtils",
+                    TypeUtils.canConvert("12", BigDecimal.class));
+
+        Exception e = null;
+        try {
+            TypeUtils.convert("12", BigDecimal.class);
+        }
+        catch (Exception ex) {
+            e = ex;
+        }
+        assertNotNull("Exception thrown when trying to convert", e);
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file