diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilder.java
index 978ed1be3fe..1a77c73b0cc 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilder.java
@@ -94,49 +94,43 @@ public class SpanTermQueryBuilder extends BaseTermQueryBuilder<SpanTermQueryBuil
 
     public static Optional<SpanTermQueryBuilder> fromXContent(QueryParseContext parseContext) throws IOException, ParsingException {
         XContentParser parser = parseContext.parser();
-
-        XContentParser.Token token = parser.currentToken();
-        if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT) {
-            token = parser.nextToken();
-        }
-
-        assert token == XContentParser.Token.FIELD_NAME;
-        String fieldName = parser.currentName();
-
-
+        String fieldName = null;
         Object value = null;
         float boost = AbstractQueryBuilder.DEFAULT_BOOST;
         String queryName = null;
-        token = parser.nextToken();
-        if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT) {
-            String currentFieldName = null;
-            while ((token = parser.nextToken()) != XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT) {
-                if (token == XContentParser.Token.FIELD_NAME) {
-                    currentFieldName = parser.currentName();
-                } else {
-                    if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, TERM_FIELD)) {
-                        value = parser.objectBytes();
-                    } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, BaseTermQueryBuilder.VALUE_FIELD)) {
-                        value = parser.objectBytes();
-                    } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, AbstractQueryBuilder.BOOST_FIELD)) {
-                        boost = parser.floatValue();
-                    } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, AbstractQueryBuilder.NAME_FIELD)) {
-                        queryName = parser.text();
+        String currentFieldName = null;
+        XContentParser.Token token;
+        while ((token = parser.nextToken()) != XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT) {
+            if (token == XContentParser.Token.FIELD_NAME) {
+                currentFieldName = parser.currentName();
+            } else if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT) {
+                if (fieldName != null) {
+                    throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(), "[span_term] query doesn't support multiple fields, found ["
+                            + fieldName + "] and [" + currentFieldName + "]");
+                }
+                fieldName = currentFieldName;
+                while ((token = parser.nextToken()) != XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT) {
+                    if (token == XContentParser.Token.FIELD_NAME) {
+                        currentFieldName = parser.currentName();
                     } else {
-                        throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(),
-                                "[span_term] query does not support [" + currentFieldName + "]");
+                        if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, TERM_FIELD)) {
+                            value = parser.objectBytes();
+                        } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, BaseTermQueryBuilder.VALUE_FIELD)) {
+                            value = parser.objectBytes();
+                        } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, AbstractQueryBuilder.BOOST_FIELD)) {
+                            boost = parser.floatValue();
+                        } else if (parseContext.getParseFieldMatcher().match(currentFieldName, AbstractQueryBuilder.NAME_FIELD)) {
+                            queryName = parser.text();
+                        } else {
+                            throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(),
+                                    "[span_term] query does not support [" + currentFieldName + "]");
+                        }
                     }
                 }
+            } else {
+                fieldName = parser.currentName();
+                value = parser.objectBytes();
             }
-            parser.nextToken();
-        } else {
-            value = parser.objectBytes();
-            // move to the next token
-            parser.nextToken();
-        }
-
-        if (value == null) {
-            throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(), "No value specified for term query");
         }
 
         SpanTermQueryBuilder result = new SpanTermQueryBuilder(fieldName, value);
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilderTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilderTests.java
index 546c8536ad9..da76dd15371 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilderTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/SpanTermQueryBuilderTests.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.spans.SpanTermQuery;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.ParsingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.BytesRefs;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MappedFieldType;
 
@@ -108,4 +109,25 @@ public class SpanTermQueryBuilderTests extends AbstractTermQueryTestCase<SpanTer
         assertEquals(json, "kimchy", parsed.value());
         assertEquals(json, 2.0, parsed.boost(), 0.0001);
     }
+
+    public void testParseFailsWithMultipleFields() throws IOException {
+        String json = "{\n" +
+                "  \"span_term\" : {\n" +
+                "    \"message1\" : {\n" +
+                "      \"term\" : \"this\"\n" +
+                "    },\n" +
+                "    \"message2\" : {\n" +
+                "      \"term\" : \"this\"\n" +
+                "    }\n" +
+                "  }\n" +
+                "}";
+
+        try {
+            parseQuery(json);
+            fail("parseQuery should have failed");
+        } catch(ParsingException e) {
+            assertEquals("[span_term] query doesn't support multiple fields, found [message1] and [message2]", e.getMessage());
+        }
+    }
+
 }