diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
index b943486b1..9dfceae34 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 package org.eclipse.jgit.lib;
 
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
+import static org.eclipse.jgit.dircache.DirCacheCheckout.checkoutEntry;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
@@ -47,6 +48,7 @@
 import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.NoWorkTreeException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.events.ChangeRecorder;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.events.ListenerHandle;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.internal.storage.dfs.InMemoryRepository;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.junit.RepositoryTestCase;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.junit.TestRepository;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.junit.TestRepository.BranchBuilder;
@@ -2146,4 +2148,11 @@ public void assertWorkDir(Map<String, String> i)
 			assertEquals("WorkDir has not the right size.", i.size(), nrFiles);
 		}
 	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void shouldReturnAndNotThrowNPEWhenCheckoutEntryIsCalledWithNullEntry() throws Exception{
+		checkoutEntry(new InMemoryRepository(null), null, null, true, new CheckoutMetadata(null, null));
+	}
+
+
 }
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheCheckout.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheCheckout.java
index 8c51a7ac2..344626de3 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheCheckout.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheCheckout.java
@@ -1214,9 +1214,10 @@ private void conflict(String path, DirCacheEntry e, AbstractTreeIterator h, Abst
 
 	private void keep(String path, DirCacheEntry e, WorkingTreeIterator f)
 			throws IOException {
-		if (e != null && !FileMode.TREE.equals(e.getFileMode()))
+		if (e != null && !FileMode.TREE.equals(e.getFileMode())) {
 			builder.add(e);
-		if (force) {
+		}
+		if (e != null && force) {
 			if (f == null || f.isModified(e, true, walk.getObjectReader())) {
 				kept.add(path);
 				checkoutEntry(repo, e, walk.getObjectReader(), false,
@@ -1447,6 +1448,9 @@ public static void checkoutEntry(Repository repo, DirCacheEntry entry,
 	public static void checkoutEntry(Repository repo, DirCacheEntry entry,
 			ObjectReader or, boolean deleteRecursive,
 			CheckoutMetadata checkoutMetadata) throws IOException {
+		if (entry == null) {
+			return;
+		}
 		if (checkoutMetadata == null)
 			checkoutMetadata = CheckoutMetadata.EMPTY;
 		ObjectLoader ol = or.open(entry.getObjectId());