diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 6cb3a56bce2..b12056dc27d 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -211,6 +211,8 @@ Release 0.23.1 - 2012-02-08
     acmurthy) 
 
   BUG FIXES
+    MAPREDUCE-3770. Zombie.getJobConf() results into NPE. (amarrk)
+
     MAPREDUCE-3804. yarn webapp interface vulnerable to cross scripting attacks
     (Dave Thompson via bobby)
 
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-rumen/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/ZombieJob.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-rumen/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/ZombieJob.java
index e760ec92ee4..fa9378cad46 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-rumen/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/ZombieJob.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-rumen/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tools/rumen/ZombieJob.java
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ public class ZombieJob implements JobStory {
   @Override
   public String getName() {
     JobName jobName = job.getJobName();
-    if (jobName == null) {
+    if (jobName == null || jobName.getValue() == null) {
       return "(name unknown)";
     } else {
       return jobName.getValue();