diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSInputStream.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSInputStream.java
index 573b860fab1..1bdc50a5e27 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSInputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSInputStream.java
@@ -1423,7 +1423,7 @@ protected void reportCheckSumFailure(CorruptedBlocks corruptedBlocks,
 
     Map<ExtendedBlock, Set<DatanodeInfo>> corruptedBlockMap =
         corruptedBlocks.getCorruptionMap();
-    if (corruptedBlockMap.isEmpty()) {
+    if (corruptedBlockMap == null) {
       return;
     }
     List<LocatedBlock> reportList = new ArrayList<>(corruptedBlockMap.size());
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
index 6c0b106ab21..313b973550c 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
@@ -751,14 +751,14 @@ public static InterruptedIOException toInterruptedIOException(String message,
   public static class CorruptedBlocks {
     private Map<ExtendedBlock, Set<DatanodeInfo>> corruptionMap;
 
-    public CorruptedBlocks() {
-      this.corruptionMap = new HashMap<>();
-    }
-
     /**
      * Indicate a block replica on the specified datanode is corrupted
      */
     public void addCorruptedBlock(ExtendedBlock blk, DatanodeInfo node) {
+      if (corruptionMap == null) {
+        corruptionMap = new HashMap<>();
+      }
+
       Set<DatanodeInfo> dnSet = corruptionMap.get(blk);
       if (dnSet == null) {
         dnSet = new HashSet<>();
@@ -770,7 +770,8 @@ public void addCorruptedBlock(ExtendedBlock blk, DatanodeInfo node) {
     }
 
     /**
-     * @return the map that contains all the corruption entries.
+     * @return the map that contains all the corruption entries, or null if
+     * there were no corrupted entries
      */
     public Map<ExtendedBlock, Set<DatanodeInfo>> getCorruptionMap() {
       return corruptionMap;
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index 96b0f36f9e6..4baafb92847 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -1278,7 +1278,7 @@ public void reportCorruptedBlocks(
       DFSUtilClient.CorruptedBlocks corruptedBlocks) throws IOException {
     Map<ExtendedBlock, Set<DatanodeInfo>> corruptionMap =
         corruptedBlocks.getCorruptionMap();
-    if (!corruptionMap.isEmpty()) {
+    if (corruptionMap != null) {
       for (Map.Entry<ExtendedBlock, Set<DatanodeInfo>> entry :
           corruptionMap.entrySet()) {
         for (DatanodeInfo dnInfo : entry.getValue()) {