diff --git a/thirdparty/cnpy/cnpy.cpp b/thirdparty/cnpy/cnpy.cpp
index ed277deb5fe..ea89bea9c08 100644
--- a/thirdparty/cnpy/cnpy.cpp
+++ b/thirdparty/cnpy/cnpy.cpp
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
 #include<stdexcept>
 #include <regex>
 
+#define assert_throw(expression)         \
+    if (!(expression))                   \
+        throw std::runtime_error(#expression)
+
 char cnpy::BigEndianTest() {
     int x = 1;
     return (((char *)&x)[0]) ? '<' : '>';
@@ -93,10 +97,10 @@ void cnpy::parse_npy_header(unsigned char* buffer,size_t& word_size, std::vector
     bool littleEndian = false;
     if (loc1 < header.size())
         littleEndian = (header[loc1] == '<' || header[loc1] == '|' ? true : false);
-    assert(littleEndian);
+    assert_throw(littleEndian);
 
     //char type = header[loc1+1];
-    //assert(type == map_type(T));
+    //assert_throw(type == map_type(T));
 
     std::string str_ws = header.substr(loc1+2);
     loc2 = str_ws.find("'");
@@ -116,7 +120,7 @@ void cnpy::parse_npy_header(FILE* fp, size_t& word_size, std::vector<size_t>& sh
     else {
         header = "";
     }
-    assert(header[header.size()-1] == '\n');
+    assert_throw(header[header.size()-1] == '\n');
 
     size_t loc1, loc2;
 
@@ -153,10 +157,10 @@ void cnpy::parse_npy_header(FILE* fp, size_t& word_size, std::vector<size_t>& sh
     bool littleEndian = false;
     if (loc1 < header.size())
         littleEndian = (header[loc1] == '<' || header[loc1] == '|' ? true : false);
-    assert(littleEndian);
+    assert_throw(littleEndian);
 
     //char type = header[loc1+1];
-    //assert(type == map_type(T));
+    //assert_throw(type == map_type(T));
 
     std::string str_ws = header.substr(loc1+2);
     loc2 = str_ws.find("'");
@@ -180,10 +184,10 @@ void cnpy::parse_zip_footer(FILE* fp, uint16_t& nrecs, size_t& global_header_siz
     global_header_offset = *(uint32_t*) &footer[16];
     comment_len = *(uint16_t*) &footer[20];
 
-    assert(disk_no == 0);
-    assert(disk_start == 0);
-    assert(nrecs_on_disk == nrecs);
-    assert(comment_len == 0);
+    assert_throw(disk_no == 0);
+    assert_throw(disk_start == 0);
+    assert_throw(nrecs_on_disk == nrecs);
+    assert_throw(comment_len == 0);
 }
 
 cnpy::NpyArray load_the_npy_file(FILE* fp) {
@@ -356,11 +360,15 @@ cnpy::NpyArray cnpy::npy_load(std::string fname) {
 
     if(!fp) throw std::runtime_error("npy_load: Unable to open file "+fname);
 
-    NpyArray arr = load_the_npy_file(fp);
+    try {
+        NpyArray arr = load_the_npy_file(fp);
+        fclose(fp);
+        return arr;
+    } catch (...) {
+        fclose(fp);
+        throw;
+    }
 
-    fclose(fp);
-    return arr;
 }
 
 
-