diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/InternalTopHits.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/InternalTopHits.java
index 3f74391529b..1cb58544fd1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/InternalTopHits.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/InternalTopHits.java
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ public class InternalTopHits extends InternalAggregation implements TopHits, ToX
     public InternalTopHits(String name, InternalSearchHits searchHits) {
         this.name = name;
         this.searchHits = searchHits;
-        this.topDocs = new TopDocs(0, Lucene.EMPTY_SCORE_DOCS, 0);
+        this.topDocs = Lucene.EMPTY_TOP_DOCS;
     }
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsAggregator.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsAggregator.java
index 165f9e5198d..fab02ac4cd2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsAggregator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsAggregator.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.AtomicReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lease.Releasables;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.Lucene;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.ScorerAware;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.LongObjectPagedHashMap;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.*;
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.support.AggregationContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.FetchPhase;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.FetchSearchResult;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.internal.InternalSearchHit;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.internal.InternalSearchHits;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
@@ -94,7 +96,7 @@ public class TopHitsAggregator extends BucketsAggregator implements ScorerAware
 
     @Override
     public InternalAggregation buildEmptyAggregation() {
-        return new InternalTopHits();
+        return new InternalTopHits(name, topHitsContext.size(), topHitsContext.sort(), Lucene.EMPTY_TOP_DOCS, InternalSearchHits.empty());
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsBuilder.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsBuilder.java
index 785fadff2d7..285b21b2647 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/tophits/TopHitsBuilder.java
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ public class TopHitsBuilder extends AbstractAggregationBuilder {
     @Override
     public XContentBuilder toXContent(XContentBuilder builder, Params params) throws IOException {
         builder.startObject(name).field(type);
-        sourceBuilder.toXContent(builder, params);
+        sourceBuilder().toXContent(builder, params);
         return builder.endObject();
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHits.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHits.java
index 6d08e56864f..d86f119c337 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHits.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHits.java
@@ -90,6 +90,10 @@ public class InternalSearchHits implements SearchHits {
         return cache.get().reset();
     }
 
+    public static InternalSearchHits empty() {
+        // We shouldn't use static final instance, since that could directly be returned by native transport clients
+        return new InternalSearchHits(EMPTY, 0, 0);
+    }
 
     public static final InternalSearchHit[] EMPTY = new InternalSearchHit[0];
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
index c48ad7c0930..b86e97d5ddf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ import static org.elasticsearch.search.internal.InternalSearchHits.readSearchHit
 public class InternalSearchResponse implements Streamable, ToXContent {
 
     public static InternalSearchResponse empty() {
-        return new InternalSearchResponse(new InternalSearchHits(new InternalSearchHit[0], 0, 0), null, null, null, false);
+        return new InternalSearchResponse(InternalSearchHits.empty(), null, null, null, false);
     }
 
     private InternalSearchHits hits;
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/TopHitsTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/TopHitsTests.java
index c990d745c5d..2c4fb2fee9e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/TopHitsTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/TopHitsTests.java
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ public class TopHitsTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
     @Override
     public void setupSuiteScopeCluster() throws Exception {
         createIndex("idx");
+        createIndex("empty");
         List<IndexRequestBuilder> builders = new ArrayList<>();
         for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
             builders.add(client().prepareIndex("idx", "type", Integer.toString(i)).setSource(jsonBuilder()
@@ -363,4 +364,17 @@ public class TopHitsTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testEmptyIndex() throws Exception {
+        SearchResponse response = client().prepareSearch("empty").setTypes("type")
+                .addAggregation(topHits("hits"))
+                .get();
+        assertSearchResponse(response);
+
+        TopHits hits = response.getAggregations().get("hits");
+        assertThat(hits, notNullValue());
+        assertThat(hits.getName(), equalTo("hits"));
+        assertThat(hits.getHits().totalHits(), equalTo(0l));
+    }
+
 }