diff --git a/java/java-indexing-impl/src/com/intellij/psi/impl/search/JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex.java b/java/java-indexing-impl/src/com/intellij/psi/impl/search/JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex.java
index 8f47e23060ef..7db8d1bd6fe0 100644
--- a/java/java-indexing-impl/src/com/intellij/psi/impl/search/JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex.java
+++ b/java/java-indexing-impl/src/com/intellij/psi/impl/search/JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex.java
@@ -86,11 +86,8 @@ public class JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex extends ScalarIndexExtension<JavaNullMe
   }
 
   private static boolean containsStopSymbol(int startIndex, @NotNull CharSequence text, boolean leftDirection) {
-    int i = startIndex;
+    int i = leftDirection ? startIndex - 1 : startIndex + 1;
     while (true) {
-
-      if (leftDirection) i--; else i++;
-
       if (leftDirection) {
         if (i < 0) return false;
       } else {
@@ -102,6 +99,8 @@ public class JavaNullMethodArgumentIndex extends ScalarIndexExtension<JavaNullMe
       if (!Lazy.WHITE_SPACE_OR_EOL_SYMBOLS.contains(c) && !Character.isWhitespace(c)) {
         return false;
       }
+
+      if (leftDirection) i--; else i++;
     }
   }