diff --git a/luatest/assertions.lua b/luatest/assertions.lua
index 6902133..8d61f9a 100644
--- a/luatest/assertions.lua
+++ b/luatest/assertions.lua
@@ -458,6 +458,18 @@ function M.assert_str_matches(value, pattern, start, final, message)
     end
 end
 
+-- Convert an error object to an error message
+-- @param err error object
+-- @return error message
+local function error_to_msg(err)
+    if type(err) == 'cdata' then
+        -- We assume that this is a `box.error` instance.
+        return err.message
+    else
+        return tostring(err)
+    end
+end
+
 local function _assert_error_msg_equals(stripFileAndLine, expectedMsg, func, ...)
     local no_error, error_msg = pcall(func, ...)
     if no_error then
@@ -467,8 +479,7 @@ local function _assert_error_msg_equals(stripFileAndLine, expectedMsg, func, ...
         failure(failure_message, nil, 3)
     end
     if type(expectedMsg) == "string" and type(error_msg) ~= "string" then
-        -- table are converted to string automatically
-        error_msg = tostring(error_msg)
+        error_msg = error_to_msg(error_msg)
     end
     local differ = false
     if stripFileAndLine then
@@ -533,7 +544,7 @@ function M.assert_error_msg_contains(expected_partial, fn, ...)
         failure(failure_message, nil, 2)
     end
     if type(error_msg) ~= "string" then
-        error_msg = tostring(error_msg)
+        error_msg = error_to_msg(error_msg)
     end
     if not string.find(error_msg, expected_partial, nil, true) then
         error_msg, expected_partial = prettystr_pairs(error_msg, expected_partial)
@@ -555,7 +566,7 @@ function M.assert_error_msg_matches(pattern, fn, ...)
         failure(failure_message, nil, 2)
     end
     if type(error_msg) ~= "string" then
-        error_msg = tostring(error_msg)
+        error_msg = error_to_msg(error_msg)
     end
     if not str_match(error_msg, pattern) then
         pattern, error_msg = prettystr_pairs(pattern, error_msg)
diff --git a/luatest/server.lua b/luatest/server.lua
index 5506871..8e59dc8 100644
--- a/luatest/server.lua
+++ b/luatest/server.lua
@@ -611,7 +611,9 @@ end
 
 local function exec_tail(ok, ...)
     if not ok then
-        local _ok, res = pcall(json.decode, tostring(...))
+        local err = ...
+        -- net.box's eval method always throws a `box.error`.
+        local _ok, res = pcall(json.decode, err.message)
         error(_ok and res or ..., 0)
     else
         return ...