diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
index 037bf161eb9..3be01cc615a 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ public class HighlightPhase implements SearchPhase {
         if (field.numberOfFragments() == 0) {
             fragListBuilder = new SingleFragListBuilder();
             fragmentsBuilder = new SimpleFragmentsBuilder(field.preTags(), field.postTags());
+            // a HACK to make highlighter do highlighting, even though its using the single frag list builder
+            field.numberOfFragments(1);
         } else {
             fragListBuilder = new SimpleFragListBuilder();
             if (field.scoreOrdered()) {