diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/pluginContainer.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/pluginContainer.ts
index 73e962c6c0931d..15f98d5a4438f0 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/pluginContainer.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/pluginContainer.ts
@@ -285,10 +285,18 @@ export async function createPluginContainer(
           : // some rollup plugins, e.g. json, sets position instead of pos
             (err as any).position
       if (pos != null) {
-        err.loc = err.loc || {
-          file: err.id,
-          ...numberToPos(ctx._activeCode, pos)
+        let errLocation;
+        try {
+          errLocation = numberToPos(ctx._activeCode, pos);
         }
+        catch (err2) {
+          console.log(`formatError: error in numberToPos (${err2}) while handling the error:`);
+          throw err;
+        }
+        err.loc = err.loc || {
+            file: err.id,
+            ...errLocation
+        };
         err.frame = err.frame || generateCodeFrame(ctx._activeCode, pos)
       } else if (err.loc) {
         // css preprocessors may report errors in an included file
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
index 3e350e5051c221..d9a186f57d51af 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/utils.ts
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ export function numberToPos(
 ): { line: number; column: number } {
   if (typeof offset !== 'number') return offset
   if (offset > source.length) {
-    throw new Error('offset is longer than source length!')
+    throw new Error(`offset is longer than source length! offset ${offset} > length ${source.length}`);
   }
   const lines = source.split(splitRE)
   let counted = 0