diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/IndexSizeTriggerTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/IndexSizeTriggerTest.java
index 79dd0197ba6..3bf70215701 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/IndexSizeTriggerTest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/IndexSizeTriggerTest.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.TestUtil;
 import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.SolrClient;
 import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.SolrRequest;
@@ -64,6 +65,7 @@ import static org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ZkStateReader.SOLR_AUTOSCALING_CONF_P
  *
  */
 @LogLevel("org.apache.solr.cloud.autoscaling=DEBUG")
+@LuceneTestCase.AwaitsFix(bugUrl = "https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-12181")
 public class IndexSizeTriggerTest extends SolrCloudTestCase {
   private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/sim/SimClusterStateProvider.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/sim/SimClusterStateProvider.java
index 9b3782ad5ca..12aa9c1a983 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/sim/SimClusterStateProvider.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/autoscaling/sim/SimClusterStateProvider.java
@@ -1049,9 +1049,14 @@ public class SimClusterStateProvider implements ClusterStateProvider {
         for (String id : deletes) {
           Slice s = router.getTargetSlice(id, null, null, req.getParams(), coll);
           // NOTE: we don't use getProperty because it uses PROPERTY_PROP_PREFIX
-          String numDocsStr = s.getLeader().getStr("SEARCHER.searcher.numDocs");
+          Replica leader = s.getLeader();
+          if (leader == null) {
+            LOG.debug("-- no leader in " + s);
+            continue;
+          }
+          String numDocsStr = leader.getStr("SEARCHER.searcher.numDocs");
           if (numDocsStr == null) {
-            LOG.debug("-- no docs in " + s.getLeader());
+            LOG.debug("-- no docs in " + leader);
             continue;
           }
           long numDocs = Long.parseLong(numDocsStr);