diff --git a/poi-scratchpad/src/test/java/org/apache/poi/hwpf/TestHWPFParser.java b/poi-scratchpad/src/test/java/org/apache/poi/hwpf/TestHWPFParser.java
index 093b860f5d4..6bda9d9e4c1 100644
--- a/poi-scratchpad/src/test/java/org/apache/poi/hwpf/TestHWPFParser.java
+++ b/poi-scratchpad/src/test/java/org/apache/poi/hwpf/TestHWPFParser.java
@@ -17,15 +17,16 @@ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 
 package org.apache.poi.hwpf;
 
+import org.apache.poi.POIDataSamples;
+import org.apache.poi.hwpf.extractor.WordExtractor;
 import org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.OfficeXmlFileException;
+import org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.POIFSFileSystem;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 
-import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
-import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertInstanceOf;
-import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;
-import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
 
 public class TestHWPFParser {
     @Test
@@ -39,6 +40,114 @@ void testDoc() throws Exception {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Test reading a real-world .doc file.
+     * This test now handles non-standard formatting that WPS/Word can open.
+     */
+    @Test
+    void testDocRead() throws Exception {
+        // Enable tolerant mode for corrupt blocks
+        System.setProperty("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks", "true");
+        try {
+            try (
+                InputStream stream = HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileStream("issue_1041.doc");
+                HWPFDocument doc = HWPFParser.parse(stream)
+            ) {
+                assertNotNull(doc);
+                WordExtractor extractor = new WordExtractor(doc);
+                String text = extractor.getText();
+                
+                // Verify actual text content, not just non-null
+                assertNotNull(text, "Extracted text should not be null");
+                assertFalse(text.isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be empty");
+                assertFalse(text.trim().isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be blank");
+            }
+        } finally {
+            // Reset to default strict mode
+            System.clearProperty("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks");
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Test that by default (strict mode), reading corrupt files throws an exception.
+     */
+    @Test
+    void testDocReadStrictMode() throws Exception {
+        // Ensure strict mode is enabled (default behavior)
+        System.clearProperty("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks");
+        
+        // Should throw HWPFReadException (wrapping IndexOutOfBoundsException) in strict mode
+        HWPFReadException exception = assertThrows(HWPFReadException.class, () -> {
+            try (
+                InputStream stream = HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileStream("issue_1041.doc");
+                HWPFDocument doc = HWPFParser.parse(stream)
+            ) {
+                // This should not succeed in strict mode
+            }
+        });
+        
+        // Verify the root cause is IndexOutOfBoundsException about corrupt blocks
+        Throwable rootCause = getRootCause(exception);
+        assertInstanceOf(IndexOutOfBoundsException.class, rootCause, "Expected root cause to be IndexOutOfBoundsException, but was: " + rootCause.getClass().getName());
+        assertTrue(rootCause.getMessage().contains("beyond EOF"),
+                   "Expected exception message to contain 'beyond EOF', but got: " + rootCause.getMessage());
+    }
+    
+    /**
+     * Helper method to get the root cause of an exception chain.
+     * Limits traversal depth to prevent infinite loops in case of circular references.
+     */
+    private static Throwable getRootCause(Throwable throwable) {
+        Throwable cause = throwable;
+        int depth = 0;
+        final int MAX_DEPTH = 20; // Reasonable limit for exception chains
+        
+        while (cause.getCause() != null && cause.getCause() != cause && depth < MAX_DEPTH) {
+            cause = cause.getCause();
+            depth++;
+        }
+        return cause;
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testWpsDocByFs()throws Exception{
+        // Enable tolerant mode for corrupt blocks
+        System.setProperty("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks", "true");
+        try {
+            POIDataSamples instance = POIDataSamples.getDocumentInstance();
+            File file = instance.getFile("issue_1041.doc");
+            POIFSFileSystem fs = new POIFSFileSystem(file);
+            WordExtractor extractor = new WordExtractor(fs);
+            String text = extractor.getText();
+            
+            // Verify actual text content, not just non-null
+            assertNotNull(text, "Extracted text should not be null");
+            assertFalse(text.isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be empty");
+            assertFalse(text.trim().isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be blank");
+        } finally {
+            // Reset to default strict mode
+            System.clearProperty("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks");
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testOffice97_2003DocRead() throws Exception {
+        try (
+            InputStream stream = HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileStream("issue_1041_2.doc");
+            HWPFDocument doc = HWPFParser.parse(stream)
+        ) {
+            assertNotNull(doc);
+            WordExtractor extractor = new WordExtractor(doc);
+            String text = extractor.getText();
+            
+            // Verify actual text content, not just non-null
+            assertNotNull(text, "Extracted text should not be null");
+            assertFalse(text.isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be empty");
+            assertFalse(text.trim().isEmpty(), "Extracted text should not be blank");
+        }
+    }
+
+
     @Test
     void testFailOnDocx() throws Exception {
         try (InputStream stream = HWPFTestDataSamples.openSampleFileStream("sample.docx")) {
diff --git a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/ByteArrayBackedDataSource.java b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/ByteArrayBackedDataSource.java
index 15c4f6ff078..5aedabbedbe 100644
--- a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/ByteArrayBackedDataSource.java
+++ b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/ByteArrayBackedDataSource.java
@@ -44,14 +44,23 @@ public ByteArrayBackedDataSource(byte[] data) {
 
    @Override
    public ByteBuffer read(int length, long position) {
+      // Handle non-standard files that have references to blocks beyond EOF
       if(position >= size) {
-         throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(
-               "Unable to read " + length + " bytes from " +
-               position + " in stream of length " + size
-         );
+         // Check system property dynamically to allow runtime configuration
+         boolean allowCorruptBlocks = Boolean.getBoolean("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks");
+         if (!allowCorruptBlocks) {
+            throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(
+               "Position " + position + " is beyond EOF (" + size + "). " +
+               "Set system property 'org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks' to true " +
+               "to allow reading corrupt files with missing blocks.");
+         }
+         // Return a zero-filled buffer in tolerant mode
+         // This allows processing of documents with corrupted block chains (e.g., some WPS files)
+         return ByteBuffer.allocate(length);
       }
 
       int toRead = (int)Math.min(length, size - position);
+      
       return ByteBuffer.wrap(buffer, (int)position, toRead);
    }
 
diff --git a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/FileBackedDataSource.java b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/FileBackedDataSource.java
index 52ff3a23814..35589370cef 100644
--- a/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/FileBackedDataSource.java
+++ b/poi/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/poifs/nio/FileBackedDataSource.java
@@ -95,7 +95,16 @@ public FileChannel getChannel() {
     @Override
     public ByteBuffer read(int length, long position) throws IOException {
         if (position >= size()) {
-            throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException("Position " + position + " past the end of the file");
+            // Check system property dynamically to allow runtime configuration
+            boolean allowCorruptBlocks = Boolean.getBoolean("org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks");
+            if (!allowCorruptBlocks) {
+                throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException(
+                    "Position " + position + " is beyond EOF (" + size() + "). " +
+                    "Set system property 'org.apache.poi.poifs.allowCorruptBlocks' to true " +
+                    "to allow reading corrupt files with missing blocks.");
+            }
+            // Return a zero-filled buffer in tolerant mode
+            return ByteBuffer.allocate(length);
         }
 
         // TODO Could we do the read-only case with MapMode.PRIVATE instead?
diff --git a/test-data/document/issue_1041.doc b/test-data/document/issue_1041.doc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cb3c17d9180
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diff --git a/test-data/document/issue_1041_2.doc b/test-data/document/issue_1041_2.doc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bc5f7c5b648
Binary files /dev/null and b/test-data/document/issue_1041_2.doc differ