diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/TermsQueryTest.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/TermsQueryTest.java
index 63f49de9f38..32570ca948a 100644
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/TermsQueryTest.java
+++ b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/TermsQueryTest.java
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ public class TermsQueryTest extends LuceneTestCase {
         doc.add(new StringField(term.field(), term.text(), Store.NO));
         iw.addDocument(doc);
       }
-      if (random().nextBoolean()) {
+      if (numTerms > 1 && random().nextBoolean()) {
         iw.deleteDocuments(new TermQuery(allTerms.get(0)));
       }
       iw.commit();
@@ -77,6 +77,11 @@ public class TermsQueryTest extends LuceneTestCase {
       final IndexSearcher searcher = newSearcher(reader);
       iw.close();
 
+      if (reader.numDocs() == 0) {
+        // may occasionally happen if all documents got the same term
+        continue;
+      }
+
       for (int i = 0; i < 100; ++i) {
         final float boost = random().nextFloat() * 10;
         final int numQueryTerms = TestUtil.nextInt(random(), 1, 1 << TestUtil.nextInt(random(), 1, 8));