diff --git a/src/Mustache/Tokenizer.php b/src/Mustache/Tokenizer.php
index bf1e5d1..c4ad3ea 100644
--- a/src/Mustache/Tokenizer.php
+++ b/src/Mustache/Tokenizer.php
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ class Mustache_Tokenizer
 
                 default:
                     if ($this->tagChange($this->ctag, $this->ctagLen, $text, $i)) {
-                        $this->tokens[] = array(
+                        $token = array(
                             self::TYPE  => $this->tagType,
                             self::NAME  => trim($this->buffer),
                             self::OTAG  => $this->otag,
@@ -160,20 +160,31 @@ class Mustache_Tokenizer
                             self::INDEX => ($this->tagType === self::T_END_SECTION) ? $this->seenTag - $this->otagLen : $i + $this->ctagLen
                         );
 
-                        $this->buffer = '';
-                        $i += $this->ctagLen - 1;
-                        $this->state = self::IN_TEXT;
                         if ($this->tagType === self::T_UNESCAPED) {
+                            // Clean up `{{{ tripleStache }}}` style tokens.
                             if ($this->ctag === '}}') {
-                                $i++;
+                                if (($i < $len + 1) && $text[$i+2] == '}') {
+                                    $i++;
+                                } else {
+                                    $msg = sprintf(
+                                        'Uneven closing tag encountered: on line %d',
+                                        $token[Mustache_Tokenizer::LINE]
+                                    );
+
+                                    throw new Mustache_Exception_SyntaxException($msg, $token);
+                                }
                             } else {
-                                // Clean up `{{{ tripleStache }}}` style tokens.
-                                $lastName = $this->tokens[count($this->tokens) - 1][self::NAME];
+                                $lastName = $token[self::NAME];
                                 if (substr($lastName, -1) === '}') {
-                                    $this->tokens[count($this->tokens) - 1][self::NAME] = trim(substr($lastName, 0, -1));
+                                    $token[self::NAME] = trim(substr($lastName, 0, -1));
                                 }
                             }
                         }
+
+                        $this->buffer = '';
+                        $i += $this->ctagLen - 1;
+                        $this->state = self::IN_TEXT;
+                        $this->tokens[] = $token;
                     } else {
                         $this->buffer .= $text[$i];
                     }
diff --git a/test/Mustache/Test/TokenizerTest.php b/test/Mustache/Test/TokenizerTest.php
index 42df8e1..ce24f56 100644
--- a/test/Mustache/Test/TokenizerTest.php
+++ b/test/Mustache/Test/TokenizerTest.php
@@ -24,6 +24,17 @@ class Mustache_Test_TokenizerTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
         $this->assertSame($expected, $tokenizer->scan($text, $delimiters));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @expectedException Mustache_Exception_SyntaxException
+     */
+    public function testUnevenBracesThrowExceptions()
+    {
+        $tokenizer = new Mustache_Tokenizer;
+
+        $text = "{{{ name }}";
+        $tokenizer->scan($text, null);
+    }
+
     public function getTokens()
     {
         return array(