diff -r da3f4774b939 Objects/exceptions.c
--- a/Objects/exceptions.c	Mon Mar 11 09:14:09 2013 +0200
+++ b/Objects/exceptions.c	Mon Mar 11 13:55:41 2013 +0530
@@ -35,16 +35,22 @@
     if (!self)
         return NULL;
     /* the dict is created on the fly in PyObject_GenericSetAttr */
-    self->message = self->dict = NULL;
+    self->dict = NULL;
 
-    self->args = PyTuple_New(0);
-    if (!self->args) {
+    self->message = PyString_FromString("");
+    if (!self->message) {
         Py_DECREF(self);
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    self->message = PyString_FromString("");
-    if (!self->message) {
+    if(args){
+        self->args = args;
+        Py_INCREF(args);
+        return (PyObject *) self;
+    }
+
+    self->args = PyTuple_New(0);
+    if (!self->args) {
         Py_DECREF(self);
         return NULL;
     }
@@ -55,12 +61,14 @@
 static int
 BaseException_init(PyBaseExceptionObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
+    PyObject *tmp;
     if (!_PyArg_NoKeywords(Py_TYPE(self)->tp_name, kwds))
         return -1;
 
-    Py_DECREF(self->args);
+    tmp = self->args;
     self->args = args;
     Py_INCREF(self->args);
+    Py_XDECREF(tmp);
 
     if (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(self->args) == 1) {
         Py_CLEAR(self->message);