diff --git a/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/messaging/DeserializingConnectionCallback.java b/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/messaging/DeserializingConnectionCallback.java
index 5627c5201ce..5ec88209706 100644
--- a/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/messaging/DeserializingConnectionCallback.java
+++ b/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/messaging/DeserializingConnectionCallback.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import org.apache.storm.serialization.KryoTupleDeserializer;
 
 import clojure.lang.IFn;
+import org.apache.storm.tuple.Tuple;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -53,7 +54,10 @@ public void recv(List<TaskMessage> batch) {
         KryoTupleDeserializer des = _des.get();
         ArrayList<AddressedTuple> ret = new ArrayList<>(batch.size());
         for (TaskMessage message: batch) {
-            ret.add(new AddressedTuple(message.task(), des.deserialize(message.message())));
+            Tuple tuple = des.deserialize(message.message());
+            if (tuple != null) {
+                ret.add(new AddressedTuple(message.task(), tuple));
+            }
         }
         _cb.invoke(ret);
     }
diff --git a/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/serialization/KryoTupleDeserializer.java b/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/serialization/KryoTupleDeserializer.java
index 4e877a8c00b..62e2014b525 100644
--- a/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/serialization/KryoTupleDeserializer.java
+++ b/storm-core/src/jvm/org/apache/storm/serialization/KryoTupleDeserializer.java
@@ -22,11 +22,15 @@
 import org.apache.storm.tuple.Tuple;
 import org.apache.storm.tuple.TupleImpl;
 import com.esotericsoftware.kryo.io.Input;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 public class KryoTupleDeserializer implements ITupleDeserializer {
+    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(KryoTupleDeserializer.class);
     GeneralTopologyContext _context;
     KryoValuesDeserializer _kryo;
     SerializationFactory.IdDictionary _ids;
@@ -50,7 +54,8 @@ public Tuple deserialize(byte[] ser) {
             List<Object> values = _kryo.deserializeFrom(_kryoInput);
             return new TupleImpl(_context, values, taskId, streamName, id);
         } catch(IOException e) {
-            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+            LOG.error("Failed to deserialize tuple.", e);
+            return null;
         }
     }
 }