diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReader.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReader.java
index 9094a2164..5b6a6bbef 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReader.java
@@ -66,6 +66,20 @@ public XsbReader(SchemaTypeSystemImpl typeSystem, String handle, int filetype) {
         _input = new LongUTFDataInputStream(rawinput);
         _handle = handle;
 
+        // A rejected header leaves the caller without a reference to close, so the
+        // resource stream has to be released here on the way out.
+        boolean headerRead = false;
+        try {
+            readHeader(handle, filetype);
+            headerRead = true;
+        } finally {
+            if (!headerRead) {
+                readEnd();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void readHeader(String handle, int filetype) {
         int magic = readInt();
         if (magic != DATA_BABE) {
             throw new SchemaTypeLoaderException("XML-BEANS compiled schema: Wrong magic cookie", typeSystem.getName(), handle, SchemaTypeLoaderException.WRONG_MAGIC_COOKIE);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReaderHeaderStreamTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReaderHeaderStreamTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..879ea4fcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/xmlbeans/impl/schema/XsbReaderHeaderStreamTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+/*   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.xmlbeans.impl.schema;
+
+import org.apache.xmlbeans.ResourceLoader;
+import org.apache.xmlbeans.SchemaTypeLoaderException;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.DataOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;
+
+public class XsbReaderHeaderStreamTest {
+
+    // Records whether the resource stream handed to XsbReader was closed again.
+    private static class TrackingInputStream extends ByteArrayInputStream {
+        private boolean closed;
+
+        TrackingInputStream(byte[] bytes) {
+            super(bytes);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void close() throws IOException {
+            closed = true;
+            super.close();
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static SchemaTypeSystemImpl typeSystemServing(InputStream stream) throws Exception {
+        SchemaTypeSystemImpl typeSystem = new SchemaTypeSystemImpl("test");
+
+        Field loaderF = SchemaTypeSystemImpl.class.getDeclaredField("_resourceLoader");
+        loaderF.setAccessible(true);
+        loaderF.set(typeSystem, new ResourceLoader() {
+            @Override
+            public InputStream getResourceAsStream(String resourceName) {
+                return stream;
+            }
+
+            @Override
+            public void close() {
+            }
+        });
+
+        return typeSystem;
+    }
+
+    private static byte[] header(int magic, int majorver, int minorver, int filetype) throws IOException {
+        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+        DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(bos);
+        dos.writeInt(magic);
+        dos.writeShort(majorver);
+        dos.writeShort(minorver);
+        dos.writeShort(0); // release number
+        dos.writeShort(filetype);
+        dos.flush();
+        return bos.toByteArray();
+    }
+
+    private static void assertRejectedAndClosed(byte[] bytes) throws Exception {
+        TrackingInputStream stream = new TrackingInputStream(bytes);
+        SchemaTypeSystemImpl typeSystem = typeSystemServing(stream);
+
+        assertThrows(SchemaTypeLoaderException.class,
+            () -> new XsbReader(typeSystem, "h", SchemaTypeSystemImpl.FILETYPE_SCHEMAINDEX));
+        assertTrue(stream.closed, "the rejected .xsb stream should have been closed");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void closesStreamOnWrongMagicCookie() throws Exception {
+        assertRejectedAndClosed(header(0xDEADBEEF, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MAJOR_VERSION, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MINOR_VERSION,
+            SchemaTypeSystemImpl.FILETYPE_SCHEMAINDEX));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void closesStreamOnWrongMajorVersion() throws Exception {
+        assertRejectedAndClosed(header(SchemaTypeSystemImpl.DATA_BABE, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MAJOR_VERSION + 1, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MINOR_VERSION,
+            SchemaTypeSystemImpl.FILETYPE_SCHEMAINDEX));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void closesStreamOnWrongFileType() throws Exception {
+        assertRejectedAndClosed(header(SchemaTypeSystemImpl.DATA_BABE, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MAJOR_VERSION, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MINOR_VERSION,
+            SchemaTypeSystemImpl.FILETYPE_SCHEMATYPE));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void closesStreamOnTruncatedStringPool() throws Exception {
+        // a well-formed header followed by nothing - the string pool read hits EOF
+        assertRejectedAndClosed(header(SchemaTypeSystemImpl.DATA_BABE, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MAJOR_VERSION, SchemaTypeSystemImpl.MINOR_VERSION,
+            SchemaTypeSystemImpl.FILETYPE_SCHEMAINDEX));
+    }
+}