diff --git a/mercurial/scmutil.py b/mercurial/scmutil.py
--- a/mercurial/scmutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/scmutil.py
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ class pathauditor(object):
                 if p in lparts[1:]:
                     pos = lparts.index(p)
                     base = os.path.join(*parts[:pos])
-                    raise util.Abort(_('path %r is inside nested repo %r')
+                    raise util.Abort(_("path '%s' is inside nested repo %r")
                                      % (path, base))
 
         parts.pop()
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ class pathauditor(object):
                 elif (stat.S_ISDIR(st.st_mode) and
                       os.path.isdir(os.path.join(curpath, '.hg'))):
                     if not self.callback or not self.callback(curpath):
-                        raise util.Abort(_('path %r is inside nested repo %r') %
+                        raise util.Abort(_("path '%s' is inside nested repo %r") %
                                          (path, prefix))
             prefixes.append(prefix)
             parts.pop()