diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/attachment/AttachmentMapper.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/attachment/AttachmentMapper.java
index 16b3bcf01e6..8d9a7cac468 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/attachment/AttachmentMapper.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/attachment/AttachmentMapper.java
@@ -295,6 +295,11 @@ public class AttachmentMapper implements Mapper {
             }
         }
 
+        // Throw clean exception when no content is provided Fix #23
+        if (content == null) {
+            throw new MapperParsingException("No content is provided.");
+        }
+
         Metadata metadata = new Metadata();
         if (contentType != null) {
             metadata.add(Metadata.CONTENT_TYPE, contentType);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugin/mapper/attachments/test/SimpleAttachmentIntegrationTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugin/mapper/attachments/test/SimpleAttachmentIntegrationTests.java
index 66cf76c21db..5fa39c59e49 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugin/mapper/attachments/test/SimpleAttachmentIntegrationTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/plugin/mapper/attachments/test/SimpleAttachmentIntegrationTests.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.count.CountResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.ESLogger;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.Loggers;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.network.NetworkUtils;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperParsingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.node.Node;
 import org.testng.annotations.*;
 
@@ -133,4 +134,19 @@ public class SimpleAttachmentIntegrationTests {
         countResponse = node.client().count(countRequest("test").query(fieldQuery("file", "End"))).actionGet();
         assertThat(countResponse.count(), equalTo(1l));
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+
+    /**
+     * Test case for issue https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-mapper-attachments/issues/23
+     * <br/>We throw a nicer exception when no content is provided
+     * @throws Exception
+     */
+    @Test(expectedExceptions = MapperParsingException.class)
+    public void testNoContent() throws Exception {
+        String mapping = copyToStringFromClasspath("/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/xcontent/test-mapping.json");
+
+        node.client().admin().indices().putMapping(putMappingRequest("test").type("person").source(mapping)).actionGet();
+
+        node.client().index(indexRequest("test").type("person")
+                .source(jsonBuilder().startObject().field("file").startObject().endObject())).actionGet();
+    }
+}