diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQuery.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQuery.java
index 52ac72d01b7..1ec34794241 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQuery.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQuery.java
@@ -78,6 +78,9 @@ public final class TermsSliceQuery extends SliceQuery {
     private DocIdSet build(LeafReader reader) throws IOException {
         final DocIdSetBuilder builder = new DocIdSetBuilder(reader.maxDoc());
         final Terms terms = reader.terms(getField());
+        if (terms == null) {
+            return DocIdSet.EMPTY;
+        }
         final TermsEnum te = terms.iterator();
         PostingsEnum docsEnum = null;
         for (BytesRef term = te.next(); term != null; term = te.next()) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQueryTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQueryTests.java
index 881dc6f9587..9093e3e87a6 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQueryTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/slice/TermsSliceQueryTests.java
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ import java.util.Set;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 
 public class TermsSliceQueryTests extends ESTestCase {
-
     public void testBasics() {
         TermsSliceQuery query1 =
             new TermsSliceQuery("field1", 1, 10);
@@ -62,6 +61,24 @@ public class TermsSliceQueryTests extends ESTestCase {
         QueryUtils.checkUnequal(query1, query4);
     }
 
+    public void testEmpty() throws Exception {
+        final Directory dir = newDirectory();
+        final RandomIndexWriter w = new RandomIndexWriter(random(), dir, new KeywordAnalyzer());
+        for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
+            Document doc = new Document();
+            doc.add(new StringField("field", Integer.toString(i), Field.Store.YES));
+            w.addDocument(doc);
+        }
+        final IndexReader reader = w.getReader();
+        final IndexSearcher searcher = newSearcher(reader);
+        TermsSliceQuery query =
+            new TermsSliceQuery("unknown", 1, 1);
+        assertThat(searcher.count(query), equalTo(0));
+        w.close();
+        reader.close();
+        dir.close();
+    }
+
     public void testSearch() throws Exception {
         final int numDocs = randomIntBetween(100, 200);
         final Directory dir = newDirectory();