diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/DelegationTokenRenewer.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/DelegationTokenRenewer.java
index d837f7d7591..23eb72ed9b7 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/DelegationTokenRenewer.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/DelegationTokenRenewer.java
@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ public synchronized void start() {
 
   @Override
   public synchronized void stop() {
-    renewalTimer.cancel();
+    if (renewalTimer != null) {
+      renewalTimer.cancel();
+    }
     delegationTokens.clear();
 
     dtCancelThread.interrupt();
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/TestDelegationTokenRenewerLifecycle.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/TestDelegationTokenRenewerLifecycle.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d061d798188
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-server/hadoop-yarn-server-resourcemanager/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/yarn/server/resourcemanager/security/TestDelegationTokenRenewerLifecycle.java
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.security;
+
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * This test replicates the condition os MAPREDUCE-3431 -a failure
+ * during startup triggered an NPE during shutdown
+ *
+ */
+public class TestDelegationTokenRenewerLifecycle {
+
+  @Test
+  public void testStartupFailure() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    DelegationTokenRenewer delegationTokenRenewer = new DelegationTokenRenewer();
+    delegationTokenRenewer.init(conf);
+    delegationTokenRenewer.stop();
+  }
+
+}