Why does "Thunderbird" throws errors for messages containing a string with a '+' and a ':' character ?

Issue

• Thunderbird has problem handling messages that contain strings in the form a+b:c.

• When opening a message containing strings in the form a+b:c, a window with the message "An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Gecko. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly." pops up.

• This issue is very annoying since the triggering string appears in almost all messages containing time information in the body.