diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
index 0136a2923af..cabe137077a 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Get.java
@@ -135,7 +135,9 @@ public class Get extends OperationWithAttributes
     if(set == null) {
       set = new TreeSet<byte []>(Bytes.BYTES_COMPARATOR);
     }
-    set.add(qualifier);
+    if (qualifier != null) {
+      set.add(qualifier);
+    }
     familyMap.put(family, set);
     return this;
   }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
index f55dd11a8bf..e721627e76e 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/Scan.java
@@ -224,7 +224,9 @@ public class Scan extends OperationWithAttributes implements Writable {
     if(set == null) {
       set = new TreeSet<byte []>(Bytes.BYTES_COMPARATOR);
     }
-    set.add(qualifier);
+    if (qualifier != null) {
+      set.add(qualifier);
+    }
     familyMap.put(family, set);
 
     return this;
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/protobuf/ProtobufUtil.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/protobuf/ProtobufUtil.java
index fd9e7aac47b..3bfaf9beb39 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/protobuf/ProtobufUtil.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/protobuf/ProtobufUtil.java
@@ -925,7 +925,8 @@ public final class ProtobufUtil {
         edit.add(new KeyValue(keyValue.toByteArray()));
       }
       if (walEdit.getFamilyScopeCount() > 0) {
-        TreeMap<byte[], Integer> scopes = new TreeMap<byte[], Integer>();
+        TreeMap<byte[], Integer> scopes =
+          new TreeMap<byte[], Integer>(Bytes.BYTES_COMPARATOR);
         for (FamilyScope scope: walEdit.getFamilyScopeList()) {
           scopes.put(scope.getFamily().toByteArray(),
             Integer.valueOf(scope.getScopeType().ordinal()));