diff --git a/plugins/event-bus/rabbitmq/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/mom/rabbitmq/RabbitMQEventBus.java b/plugins/event-bus/rabbitmq/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/mom/rabbitmq/RabbitMQEventBus.java
index e8067e75b406..2851ef3498e5 100644
--- a/plugins/event-bus/rabbitmq/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/mom/rabbitmq/RabbitMQEventBus.java
+++ b/plugins/event-bus/rabbitmq/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/mom/rabbitmq/RabbitMQEventBus.java
@@ -492,7 +492,7 @@ public boolean start() {
 
     @Override
     public synchronized boolean stop() {
-        if (s_connection.isOpen()) {
+        if (s_connection != null && s_connection.isOpen()) {
             for (String subscriberId : s_subscribers.keySet()) {
                 Ternary<String, Channel, EventSubscriber> subscriberDetails = s_subscribers.get(subscriberId);
                 Channel channel = subscriberDetails.second();