xml parsing - Java SAX XMLReader sometimes missing characters -

i'm parsing xml file of form

<stuff>   <date>5.9.2013</date>   <items>     <item>       <a>foo</a>       <b>bar</b>       <c>202</c>       <d>         <e>baz</e>         <e>bang</e>       </d>     </item>     <item>       <a>foo</a>       <b>bar</b>       <c>203</c>       <d>         <e>baz</e>         <e>bang</e>       </d>     </item>   </items> </stuff> 

there 30.000 of <item>s. sometimes -- , don't know when -- characters <c> tag missing. resulting in value "3" instead of "203". some items.

this reproducibly happens same file. different permutations of file (items in different order) doesn't happen.

this happens on 1 of several environments. make things worse don't have direct access environment, debugging hard.

my implementation aware of fact, parser get's content in chunks.