stale NFS file handle

[Todd Deckard]

Question, We have a Sun 386i on our network and are using it as a DOS compile engine.  Problem:
sometimes when the DOS software has accessed a file, the next attempt to touch it (from a normal Unix window)
yields a "stale NFS file handle" error.  Can someone explain what this error is, and what causes it, and 
why we might be having problems with it in this instance.

Thanks
-Todd