diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 0302615bb33..2b0044c3f6e 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -275,6 +275,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-10083: Fix instanceof check in ConstDoubleSource.equals (Pushkar Raste via Christine Poerschke)
 
+* SOLR-10190: Fix NPE in CloudSolrClient when reading stale alias (Janosch Woschitz via Tomás Fernández Löbbe)
+
 ==================  6.4.1 ==================
 
 Consult the LUCENE_CHANGES.txt file for additional, low level, changes in this release.
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
index d0263c818ea..3147d4e50ef 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
@@ -1075,6 +1075,9 @@ public class CloudSolrClient extends SolrClient {
       for (String requestedCollection : requestedCollectionNames) {
         // track the version of state we're using on the client side using the _stateVer_ param
         DocCollection coll = getDocCollection(requestedCollection, null);
+        if (coll == null) {
+          throw new SolrException(ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST, "Collection not found: " + requestedCollection);
+        }
         int collVer = coll.getZNodeVersion();
         if (coll.getStateFormat()>1) {
           if(requestedCollections == null) requestedCollections = new ArrayList<>(requestedCollectionNames.size());
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
index 1698075dfb1..cff5c239ef5 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
@@ -146,6 +146,31 @@ public class CloudSolrClientTest extends SolrCloudTestCase {
 
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testHandlingOfStaleAlias() throws Exception {
+    try (CloudSolrClient client = getCloudSolrClient(cluster.getZkServer().getZkAddress())) {
+      client.setDefaultCollection("misconfigured-alias");
+
+      CollectionAdminRequest.createCollection("nemesis", "conf", 2, 1).process(client);
+      CollectionAdminRequest.createAlias("misconfigured-alias", "nemesis").process(client);
+      CollectionAdminRequest.deleteCollection("nemesis").process(client);
+
+      List<SolrInputDocument> docs = new ArrayList<>();
+
+      SolrInputDocument doc = new SolrInputDocument();
+      doc.addField(id, Integer.toString(1));
+      docs.add(doc);
+
+      try {
+        client.add(docs);
+        fail("Alias points to non-existing collection, add should fail");
+      } catch (SolrException e) {
+        assertEquals(SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST.code, e.code());
+        assertTrue("Unexpected error exception", e.getMessage().contains("Collection not found"));
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testRouting() throws Exception {