diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
index 2aea01f187b..0615f7a823a 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.springframework.web.client;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 
 import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
@@ -82,11 +83,15 @@ public class DefaultResponseErrorHandler implements ResponseErrorHandler {
 
 	private byte[] getResponseBody(ClientHttpResponse response) {
 		try {
-			return FileCopyUtils.copyToByteArray(response.getBody());
+            InputStream responseBody = response.getBody();
+            if (responseBody != null) {
+                return FileCopyUtils.copyToByteArray(responseBody);
+            }
 		}
 		catch (IOException ex) {
-			return new byte[0];
+            // ignore
 		}
+        return new byte[0];
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java
index 67a11a7c8de..0c9866c19be 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java
@@ -19,16 +19,17 @@ package org.springframework.web.client;
 import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 
-import org.junit.Before;
-import org.junit.Test;
-
 import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
 import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
 import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
 import org.springframework.http.client.ClientHttpResponse;
 
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
 import static org.easymock.EasyMock.*;
-import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
 /** @author Arjen Poutsma */
 public class DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests {
@@ -96,4 +97,21 @@ public class DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests {
 
 		verify(response);
 	}
+
+	@Test(expected = HttpClientErrorException.class)
+	public void handleErrorNullResponse() throws Exception {
+		HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+		headers.setContentType(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN);
+
+		expect(response.getStatusCode()).andReturn(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+		expect(response.getStatusText()).andReturn("Not Found");
+		expect(response.getHeaders()).andReturn(headers);
+		expect(response.getBody()).andReturn(null);
+
+		replay(response);
+
+		handler.handleError(response);
+
+		verify(response);
+	}
 }