diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/DebugComponent.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/DebugComponent.java
index 5cd396a49e8..2fe19d52157 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/DebugComponent.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/DebugComponent.java
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ public class DebugComponent extends SearchComponent
   public void modifyRequest(ResponseBuilder rb, SearchComponent who, ShardRequest sreq) {
     if (!rb.isDebug()) return;
 
-    // Turn on debug to get explain only only when retrieving fields
+    // Turn on debug to get explain only when retrieving fields
     if ((sreq.purpose & ShardRequest.PURPOSE_GET_FIELDS) != 0) {
         sreq.purpose |= ShardRequest.PURPOSE_GET_DEBUG;
         sreq.params.set("debugQuery", "true");
@@ -130,6 +130,10 @@ public class DebugComponent extends SearchComponent
       }
 
       explain = HighlightComponent.removeNulls(new SimpleOrderedMap(Arrays.asList(arr)));
+
+      if (info == null) {
+        info = new NamedList();
+      }
       int idx = info.indexOf("explain",0);
       if (idx>=0) {
         info.setVal(idx, explain);
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java b/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
index cf4099741e6..2301cf23f86 100755
--- a/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/solr/TestDistributedSearch.java
@@ -486,6 +486,9 @@ public class TestDistributedSearch extends TestCase {
     query("q","now their fox sat had put","fl","*,score",
             "debugQuery", "true");
 
+    query("q","matchesnothing","fl","*,score",
+            "debugQuery", "true");    
+
     query("q","*:*", "rows",100, "facet","true", "facet.field",t1);
     query("q","*:*", "rows",100, "facet","true", "facet.field",t1,"facet.limit",1);
     query("q","*:*", "rows",100, "facet","true", "facet.query","quick", "facet.query","all", "facet.query","*:*");