diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/XContentObjectMapper.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/XContentObjectMapper.java
index 8822a237b23..bf0f9785530 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/XContentObjectMapper.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/XContentObjectMapper.java
@@ -315,6 +315,10 @@ public class XContentObjectMapper implements XContentMapper, XContentIncludeInAl
 
         String currentFieldName = parser.currentName();
         XContentParser.Token token = parser.currentToken();
+        if (token == XContentParser.Token.VALUE_NULL) {
+            // the object is null ("obj1" : null), simply bail
+            return;
+        }
         // if we are at the end of the previous object, advance
         if (token == XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT) {
             token = parser.nextToken();
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/object/XContentNullValueObjectMappingTests.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/object/XContentNullValueObjectMappingTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8b1952a09de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/object/XContentNullValueObjectMappingTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elastic Search and Shay Banon under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership. Elastic Search licenses this
+ * file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.object;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParsedDocument;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.XContentDocumentMapper;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.xcontent.XContentMapperTests;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.*;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
+
+/**
+ * @author kimchy (shay.banon)
+ */
+public class XContentNullValueObjectMappingTests {
+
+    @Test public void testNullValueObject() throws IOException {
+        String mapping = XContentFactory.contentTextBuilder(XContentType.JSON).startObject().startObject("type")
+                .startObject("properties").startObject("obj1").field("type", "object").endObject().endObject()
+                .endObject().endObject().string();
+
+        XContentDocumentMapper defaultMapper = XContentMapperTests.newParser().parse(mapping);
+
+        ParsedDocument doc = defaultMapper.parse("type", "1", XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()
+                .startObject()
+                .startObject("obj1").endObject()
+                .field("value1", "test1")
+                .endObject()
+                .copiedBytes());
+
+        assertThat(doc.doc().get("value1"), equalTo("test1"));
+
+        doc = defaultMapper.parse("type", "1", XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()
+                .startObject()
+                .nullField("obj1")
+                .field("value1", "test1")
+                .endObject()
+                .copiedBytes());
+
+        assertThat(doc.doc().get("value1"), equalTo("test1"));
+
+        doc = defaultMapper.parse("type", "1", XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()
+                .startObject()
+                .startObject("obj1").field("field", "value").endObject()
+                .field("value1", "test1")
+                .endObject()
+                .copiedBytes());
+
+        assertThat(doc.doc().get("obj1.field"), equalTo("value"));
+        assertThat(doc.doc().get("value1"), equalTo("test1"));
+    }
+}