diff --git a/core/src/main/java/apoc/util/MissingDependencyException.java b/core/src/main/java/apoc/util/MissingDependencyException.java
index 80f0f29325..b2256f066f 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/apoc/util/MissingDependencyException.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/apoc/util/MissingDependencyException.java
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
  * Created by larusba on 5/18/17.
  */
 public class MissingDependencyException extends RuntimeException {
-    public MissingDependencyException(String message) {
-        super(message);
+    public MissingDependencyException(String message, Throwable cause) {
+        super(message, cause);
     }
 }
diff --git a/extra-dependencies/xls/build.gradle b/extra-dependencies/xls/build.gradle
index 181beaa618..b43e2338f1 100644
--- a/extra-dependencies/xls/build.gradle
+++ b/extra-dependencies/xls/build.gradle
@@ -20,11 +20,21 @@ jar {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.poi', name: 'poi', version: '5.3.0'
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.poi', name: 'poi-ooxml-lite', version: '5.3.0'
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.poi', name: 'poi-ooxml', version: '5.3.0' , {
-        exclude group: 'org.apache.commons', module: 'commons-compress' 
+    // Make sure no transitive dependencies are included together with apache.poi
+
+    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
     }
+    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+
     implementation group: 'org.apache.xmlbeans', name: 'xmlbeans', version: '5.0.2'
     implementation group: 'com.github.virtuald', name: 'curvesapi', version: '1.06'
     implementation group: 'org.apache.commons', name: 'commons-collections4', version: '4.4'
diff --git a/full/build.gradle b/full/build.gradle
index 270a07b228..4f7dba3557 100644
--- a/full/build.gradle
+++ b/full/build.gradle
@@ -64,10 +64,20 @@ dependencies {
     // compileOnly "org.antlr:antlr4-runtime:4.7.2"
     // testCompile "org.antlr:antlr4-runtime:4.7.2"
 
-    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0"
-    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0"
-    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0"
-    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0"
+    // Make sure no transitive dependencies are included together with apache.poi
+
+    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+    compileOnly "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
+    testImplementation "org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.3.0", {
+        exclude group: '*'
+    }
 
     implementation 'org.jsoup:jsoup:1.15.3'
 
diff --git a/full/src/main/java/apoc/export/xls/ExportXls.java b/full/src/main/java/apoc/export/xls/ExportXls.java
index 8e91a29904..b8f884a040 100644
--- a/full/src/main/java/apoc/export/xls/ExportXls.java
+++ b/full/src/main/java/apoc/export/xls/ExportXls.java
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ private Stream<ProgressInfo> exportXls(
         try {
             return ExportXlsHandler.getProgressInfoStream(fileName, source, data, configMap, apocConfig, db);
         } catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
-            throw new MissingDependencyException(XLS_MISSING_DEPS_ERROR);
+            throw new MissingDependencyException(XLS_MISSING_DEPS_ERROR, e);
         }
     }
 }