diff --git a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/MultiDocValues.java b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/MultiDocValues.java
index e0fa37d6393..317c9a56b95 100644
--- a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/MultiDocValues.java
+++ b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/MultiDocValues.java
@@ -46,6 +46,12 @@ public class MultiDocValues extends DocValues {
     public DocValues pull(IndexReader reader, String field) throws IOException {
       return reader.normValues(field);
     }
+    
+    public boolean stopLoadingOnNull(IndexReader reader, String field) throws IOException {
+      // for norms we drop all norms if one leaf reader has no norms and the field is present
+      Fields fields = reader.fields();
+      return (fields != null && fields.terms(field) != null);
+    }
   };
 
   public static class DocValuesSlice {
@@ -65,6 +71,10 @@ public class MultiDocValues extends DocValues {
     public DocValues pull(IndexReader reader, String field) throws IOException {
       return reader.docValues(field);
     }
+    
+    public boolean stopLoadingOnNull(IndexReader reader, String field) throws IOException {
+      return false;
+    }
   }
 
   private DocValuesSlice[] slices;
@@ -123,12 +133,19 @@ public class MultiDocValues extends DocValues {
       // potentially incompatible types
       
       new ReaderUtil.Gather(r) {
+        boolean stop = false;
         @Override
         protected void add(int base, IndexReader r) throws IOException {
+          if (stop) {
+            return;
+          }
           final DocValues d = puller.pull(r, field);
           if (d != null) {
             TypePromoter incoming = TypePromoter.create(d.type(), d.getValueSize());
             promotedType[0] = promotedType[0].promote(incoming);
+          } else if (puller.stopLoadingOnNull(r, field)){
+            promotedType[0] = TypePromoter.getIdentityPromoter(); // set to identity to return null
+            stop = true;
           }
           slices.add(new DocValuesSlice(d, base, r.maxDoc()));
         }