diff --git a/app/build.gradle b/app/build.gradle
index 043f794de..284b07ecc 100644
--- a/app/build.gradle
+++ b/app/build.gradle
@@ -94,7 +94,12 @@ android {
     }
 
     sourceSets {
+        // use kotlin only in tests (for now)
         test.java.srcDirs += 'src/test/kotlin'
+
+        // use main assets and resources in test
+        test.assets.srcDirs += 'src/main/assets'
+        test.resources.srcDirs += 'src/main/resoures'
     }
 
     buildTypes {
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/nearby/NearbyPlaces.java b/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/nearby/NearbyPlaces.java
index 9e06812ba..f13aa1ae3 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/nearby/NearbyPlaces.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/nearby/NearbyPlaces.java
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ public class NearbyPlaces {
 
     public NearbyPlaces() {
         try {
-            wikidataQuery = FileUtils.readFromResource("/assets/queries/nearby_query.rq");
+            wikidataQuery = FileUtils.readFromResource("/queries/nearby_query.rq");
             Timber.v(wikidataQuery);
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw new RuntimeException(e);
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/utils/FileUtils.java b/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/utils/FileUtils.java
index 4191f9d6f..6912d0ceb 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/utils/FileUtils.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/fr/free/nrw/commons/utils/FileUtils.java
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ import android.os.Environment;
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 
@@ -16,16 +18,18 @@ public class FileUtils {
     /**
      * Read and return the content of a resource file as string.
      *
-     * @param fileName asset file's path (e.g. "/assets/queries/nearby_query.rq")
+     * @param fileName asset file's path (e.g. "/queries/nearby_query.rq")
      * @return the content of the file
      */
     public static String readFromResource(String fileName) throws IOException {
         StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
         BufferedReader reader = null;
         try {
-            reader = new BufferedReader(
-                    new InputStreamReader(
-                            CommonsApplication.class.getResourceAsStream(fileName), "UTF-8"));
+            InputStream inputStream = FileUtils.class.getResourceAsStream(fileName);
+            if (inputStream == null) {
+                throw new FileNotFoundException(fileName);
+            }
+            reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, "UTF-8"));
             String line;
             while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                 buffer.append(line + "\n");
diff --git a/app/src/main/assets/queries/nearby_query.rq b/app/src/main/resources/queries/nearby_query.rq
similarity index 100%
rename from app/src/main/assets/queries/nearby_query.rq
rename to app/src/main/resources/queries/nearby_query.rq