diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
index d309efa6e10..920e20f2be3 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
@@ -107,7 +107,11 @@ public class AndQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<AndQueryBuilder> {
 
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder f : filters) {
-            query.add(f.toQuery(parseContext), Occur.MUST);
+            Query innerQuery = f.toQuery(parseContext);
+            // ignore queries that are null
+            if (innerQuery != null) {
+                query.add(innerQuery, Occur.MUST);
+            }
         }
         if (queryName != null) {
             parseContext.addNamedQuery(queryName, query);
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
index fc26745cb8f..27d6298b01d 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
@@ -106,7 +106,11 @@ public class OrQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<OrQueryBuilder> {
 
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder f : filters) {
-            query.add(f.toQuery(parseContext), Occur.SHOULD);
+            Query innerQuery = f.toQuery(parseContext);
+            // ignore queries that are null
+            if (innerQuery != null) {
+                query.add(innerQuery, Occur.SHOULD);
+            }
         }
         if (queryName != null) {
             parseContext.addNamedQuery(queryName, query);
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilderTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilderTest.java
index 98185b124a7..9c175bd5600 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilderTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilderTest.java
@@ -40,7 +40,10 @@ public class AndQueryBuilderTest extends BaseQueryTestCase<AndQueryBuilder> {
         }
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder subQuery : queryBuilder.filters()) {
-            query.add(subQuery.toQuery(context), Occur.MUST);
+            Query innerQuery = subQuery.toQuery(context);
+            if (innerQuery != null) {
+                query.add(innerQuery, Occur.MUST);
+            }
         }
         return query;
     }
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilderTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilderTest.java
index 8169cbd37ad..db9b7ba1b27 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilderTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilderTest.java
@@ -40,7 +40,11 @@ public class OrQueryBuilderTest extends BaseQueryTestCase<OrQueryBuilder> {
         }
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder subQuery : queryBuilder.filters()) {
-            query.add(subQuery.toQuery(context), Occur.SHOULD);
+            Query innerQuery = subQuery.toQuery(context);
+            // ignore queries that are null
+            if (innerQuery != null) {
+                query.add(innerQuery, Occur.SHOULD);
+            }
         }
         return query;
     }