diff --git a/extensions-core/kafka-indexing-service/src/main/java/io/druid/indexing/kafka/KafkaIndexTask.java b/extensions-core/kafka-indexing-service/src/main/java/io/druid/indexing/kafka/KafkaIndexTask.java
index b344b8a3e9b5..6261154e7058 100644
--- a/extensions-core/kafka-indexing-service/src/main/java/io/druid/indexing/kafka/KafkaIndexTask.java
+++ b/extensions-core/kafka-indexing-service/src/main/java/io/druid/indexing/kafka/KafkaIndexTask.java
@@ -279,6 +279,7 @@ public TaskStatus run(final TaskToolbox toolbox) throws Exception
         )
     );
 
+    boolean publishedSuccessfully = false;
     try (
         final Appenderator appenderator0 = newAppenderator(fireDepartmentMetrics, toolbox);
         final FiniteAppenderatorDriver driver = newDriver(appenderator0, toolbox, fireDepartmentMetrics);
@@ -516,6 +517,7 @@ public boolean publishSegments(Set<DataSegment> segments, Object commitMetadata)
       if (published == null) {
         throw new ISE("Transaction failure publishing segments, aborting");
       } else {
+        publishedSuccessfully = true;
         log.info(
             "Published segments[%s] with metadata[%s].",
             Joiner.on(", ").join(
@@ -548,6 +550,11 @@ public String apply(DataSegment input)
         throw e;
       }
 
+      if (!publishedSuccessfully){
+        log.error("The task did NOT publish the segments successfully, check the value of [completionTimeout]");
+        throw e;
+      }
+
       log.info("The task was asked to stop before completing");
     }
     finally {