diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/MultiRowRangeFilter.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/MultiRowRangeFilter.java
index ca4f9b04d62..7efda865525 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/MultiRowRangeFilter.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/MultiRowRangeFilter.java
@@ -233,6 +233,9 @@ public class MultiRowRangeFilter extends FilterBase {
       if (insertionPosition == 0 && !rangeList.get(insertionPosition).contains(rowKey)) {
         return ROW_BEFORE_FIRST_RANGE;
       }
+      if (!initialized) {
+        initialized = true;
+      }
       return insertionPosition;
     }
     // the row key equals one of the start keys, and the the range exclude the start key
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/TestMultiRowRangeFilter.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/TestMultiRowRangeFilter.java
index 0c596aae4ce..dfa8bfa459d 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/TestMultiRowRangeFilter.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/TestMultiRowRangeFilter.java
@@ -69,6 +69,24 @@ public class TestMultiRowRangeFilter {
     TEST_UTIL.shutdownMiniCluster();
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testRanges() throws IOException {
+    byte[] key1Start = new byte[] {-3};
+    byte[] key1End  = new byte[] {-2};
+
+    byte[] key2Start = new byte[] {5};
+    byte[] key2End  = new byte[] {6};
+
+    byte[] badKey = new byte[] {-10};
+
+    MultiRowRangeFilter filter = new MultiRowRangeFilter(Arrays.asList(
+      new MultiRowRangeFilter.RowRange(key1Start, true, key1End, false),
+      new MultiRowRangeFilter.RowRange(key2Start, true, key2End, false)
+        ));
+    filter.filterRowKey(badKey, 0, 1);
+    assertEquals(Filter.ReturnCode.SEEK_NEXT_USING_HINT, filter.filterKeyValue(null));
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testOutOfOrderScannerNextException() throws Exception {
     MultiRowRangeFilter filter = new MultiRowRangeFilter(Arrays.asList(