diff --git a/plugins/xpath/xpath-lang/src/org/intellij/lang/xpath/xslt/XsltSupport.java b/plugins/xpath/xpath-lang/src/org/intellij/lang/xpath/xslt/XsltSupport.java
index 83405ac984c6..296f5e203ca5 100644
--- a/plugins/xpath/xpath-lang/src/org/intellij/lang/xpath/xslt/XsltSupport.java
+++ b/plugins/xpath/xpath-lang/src/org/intellij/lang/xpath/xslt/XsltSupport.java
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ public class XsltSupport {
         if (isXsltAttribute(attribute)) {
             final String tagName = attribute.getParent().getLocalName();
             final String s = XPATH_ATTR_MAP.get(name);
-            if (s.length() > 0 && !tagName.equals(s)) {
+            if (s != null && s.length() > 0 && !tagName.equals(s)) {
                 if (!isAttributeValueTemplate(attribute, true)) {
                     return false;
                 }