diff --git a/php/php.editor/src/org/netbeans/modules/php/editor/csl/OccurrencesFinderImpl.java b/php/php.editor/src/org/netbeans/modules/php/editor/csl/OccurrencesFinderImpl.java
index 066d610920c0..1907f3794e33 100644
--- a/php/php.editor/src/org/netbeans/modules/php/editor/csl/OccurrencesFinderImpl.java
+++ b/php/php.editor/src/org/netbeans/modules/php/editor/csl/OccurrencesFinderImpl.java
@@ -69,7 +69,9 @@ public void setCaretPosition(int position) {
     @Override
     public Map<OffsetRange, ColoringAttributes> getOccurrences() {
         // must not return null
-        return Collections.unmodifiableMap(range2Attribs);
+        return range2Attribs != null
+                ? Collections.unmodifiableMap(range2Attribs)
+                : Collections.emptyMap();
     }
 
     @Override