diff --git a/java/src/org/openqa/selenium/remote/http/jdk/JdkHttpMessages.java b/java/src/org/openqa/selenium/remote/http/jdk/JdkHttpMessages.java
index 8aae9ab2bc52ba..5aca1b2401de59 100644
--- a/java/src/org/openqa/selenium/remote/http/jdk/JdkHttpMessages.java
+++ b/java/src/org/openqa/selenium/remote/http/jdk/JdkHttpMessages.java
@@ -115,7 +115,12 @@ private BodyPublisher notChunkingBodyPublisher(HttpRequest req) {
 
     if (length == null) {
       // read the data into a byte array to know the length
-      return BodyPublishers.ofByteArray(Contents.bytes(req.getContent()));
+      byte[] bytes = Contents.bytes(req.getContent());
+      if (bytes.length == 0) {
+        //Looks like we were given a request with no payload.
+        return BodyPublishers.noBody();
+      }
+      return BodyPublishers.ofByteArray(bytes);
     }
 
     // we know the length of the request and use it