diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES-fs-encryption.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES-fs-encryption.txt
index 7170acb225a..c447d49b52c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES-fs-encryption.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES-fs-encryption.txt
@@ -59,3 +59,6 @@ fs-encryption (Unreleased)
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
+
+    HDFS-6733. Creating encryption zone results in NPE when
+    KeyProvider is null. (clamb)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
index 31a89bfde2e..9b7cb199583 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSNamesystem.java
@@ -8448,6 +8448,11 @@ public class FSNamesystem implements Namesystem, FSClusterStats,
     String keyName = keyNameArg;
     boolean success = false;
     try {
+      if (provider == null) {
+        throw new IOException(
+            "Can't create an encryption zone for " + src +
+            " since no key provider is available.");
+      }
       if (keyName == null || keyName.isEmpty()) {
         keyName = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
         createNewKey(keyName, src);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestEncryptionZones.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestEncryptionZones.java
index 7b268ed16d4..421396bdf38 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestEncryptionZones.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestEncryptionZones.java
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ public class TestEncryptionZones {
   private MiniDFSCluster cluster;
   private HdfsAdmin dfsAdmin;
   private DistributedFileSystem fs;
+  private File testRootDir;
 
   protected FileSystemTestWrapper fsWrapper;
   protected FileContextTestWrapper fcWrapper;
@@ -78,14 +79,14 @@ public class TestEncryptionZones {
     fsHelper = new FileSystemTestHelper();
     // Set up java key store
     String testRoot = fsHelper.getTestRootDir();
-    File testRootDir = new File(testRoot).getAbsoluteFile();
+    testRootDir = new File(testRoot).getAbsoluteFile();
     conf.set(KeyProviderFactory.KEY_PROVIDER_PATH,
         JavaKeyStoreProvider.SCHEME_NAME + "://file" + testRootDir + "/test.jks"
     );
     cluster = new MiniDFSCluster.Builder(conf).numDataNodes(1).build();
     Logger.getLogger(EncryptionZoneManager.class).setLevel(Level.TRACE);
     fs = cluster.getFileSystem();
-    fsWrapper = new FileSystemTestWrapper(cluster.getFileSystem());
+    fsWrapper = new FileSystemTestWrapper(fs);
     fcWrapper = new FileContextTestWrapper(
         FileContext.getFileContext(cluster.getURI(), conf));
     dfsAdmin = new HdfsAdmin(cluster.getURI(), conf);
@@ -429,4 +430,25 @@ public class TestEncryptionZones {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test(timeout = 120000)
+  public void testCreateEZWithNoProvider() throws Exception {
+
+    final Configuration clusterConf = cluster.getConfiguration(0);
+    clusterConf.set(KeyProviderFactory.KEY_PROVIDER_PATH, "");
+    cluster.restartNameNode(true);
+    /* Test failure of create EZ on a directory that doesn't exist. */
+    final Path zone1 = new Path("/zone1");
+    /* Normal creation of an EZ */
+    fsWrapper.mkdir(zone1, FsPermission.getDirDefault(), true);
+    try {
+      dfsAdmin.createEncryptionZone(zone1, null);
+      fail("expected exception");
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      assertExceptionContains("since no key provider is available", e);
+    }
+    clusterConf.set(KeyProviderFactory.KEY_PROVIDER_PATH,
+        JavaKeyStoreProvider.SCHEME_NAME + "://file" + testRootDir + "/test.jks"
+    );
+    cluster.restartNameNode(true);
+  }
 }