diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/findBugs/FindBugsExcludeFilter.xml b/org.eclipse.jgit/findBugs/FindBugsExcludeFilter.xml
index 686843f30..73a668556 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/findBugs/FindBugsExcludeFilter.xml
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/findBugs/FindBugsExcludeFilter.xml
@@ -77,6 +77,12 @@
        <Bug pattern="NP_BOOLEAN_RETURN_NULL" />
      </Match>
 
+     <Match>
+       <Class name="org.eclipse.jgit.ignore.IgnoreNode" />
+       <Method name="checkIgnored" />
+       <Bug pattern="NP_BOOLEAN_RETURN_NULL" />
+     </Match>
+
      <!-- Transport initialization works like this -->
      <Match>
        <Class name="org.eclipse.jgit.transport.Transport" />
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreNode.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreNode.java
index 0bc612491..1a1b2d302 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreNode.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/ignore/IgnoreNode.java
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.eclipse.jgit.annotations.Nullable;
+
 /**
  * Represents a bundle of ignore rules inherited from a base directory.
  *
@@ -135,7 +137,8 @@ public MatchResult isIgnored(String entryPath, boolean isDirectory) {
 	 *         undetermined
 	 * @since 4.11
 	 */
-	public Boolean checkIgnored(String entryPath, boolean isDirectory) {
+	public @Nullable Boolean checkIgnored(String entryPath,
+			boolean isDirectory) {
 		// Parse rules in the reverse order that they were read because later
 		// rules have higher priority
 		for (int i = rules.size() - 1; i > -1; i--) {