diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java
index aea1b636f43..73373f02194 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java
@@ -489,6 +489,9 @@ class SegmentReader extends IndexReader {
       return null;
     
     TermVectorsReader termVectorsReader = getTermVectorsReader();
+    if (termVectorsReader == null)
+      return null;
+    
     return termVectorsReader.get(docNumber, field);
   }
 
@@ -505,6 +508,9 @@ class SegmentReader extends IndexReader {
       return null;
     
     TermVectorsReader termVectorsReader = getTermVectorsReader();
+    if (termVectorsReader == null)
+      return null;
+    
     return termVectorsReader.get(docNumber);
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermVectorsReader.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermVectorsReader.java
index 96de61c2886..6cfc57eca7c 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermVectorsReader.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/TermVectorsReader.java
@@ -295,6 +295,10 @@ class TermVectorsReader implements Cloneable {
   }
 
   protected Object clone() {
+    
+    if (tvx == null || tvd == null || tvf == null)
+      return null;
+    
     TermVectorsReader clone = null;
     try {
       clone = (TermVectorsReader) super.clone();