diff --git a/internal/utils/persistent-actors/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/internal/utils/persistentactors/condition/package-info.java b/internal/utils/persistent-actors/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/internal/utils/persistentactors/condition/package-info.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 8e8e30ac54..0000000000
--- a/internal/utils/persistent-actors/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/internal/utils/persistentactors/condition/package-info.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright (c) 2021 Contributors to the Eclipse Foundation
- *
- * See the NOTICE file(s) distributed with this work for additional
- * information regarding copyright ownership.
- *
- * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
- * terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at
- * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0
- *
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
- */
-
-/**
- * Entity-tag handlers.
- */
-@org.eclipse.ditto.utils.jsr305.annotations.AllValuesAreNonnullByDefault
-package org.eclipse.ditto.internal.utils.persistentactors.condition;
diff --git a/things/model/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/model/signals/events/ThingMerged.java b/things/model/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/model/signals/events/ThingMerged.java
index f199c0820a..5a280a94a5 100644
--- a/things/model/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/model/signals/events/ThingMerged.java
+++ b/things/model/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/model/signals/events/ThingMerged.java
@@ -210,16 +210,16 @@ public String toString() {
     /**
      * An enumeration of the JSON fields of a {@code ThingMerged} event.
      */
-    static final class JsonFields {
+    public static final class JsonFields {
 
         private JsonFields() {
             throw new AssertionError();
         }
 
-        static final JsonFieldDefinition<String> JSON_PATH =
+        public static final JsonFieldDefinition<String> JSON_PATH =
                 JsonFactory.newStringFieldDefinition("path", FieldType.REGULAR, JsonSchemaVersion.V_2);
 
-        static final JsonFieldDefinition<JsonValue> JSON_VALUE =
+        public static final JsonFieldDefinition<JsonValue> JSON_VALUE =
                 JsonFactory.newJsonValueFieldDefinition("value", FieldType.REGULAR, JsonSchemaVersion.V_2);
     }
 }
diff --git a/things/service/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/service/persistence/serializer/ThingMongoEventAdapter.java b/things/service/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/service/persistence/serializer/ThingMongoEventAdapter.java
index ba7d45a8ec..9e4c3b6cd6 100644
--- a/things/service/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/service/persistence/serializer/ThingMongoEventAdapter.java
+++ b/things/service/src/main/java/org/eclipse/ditto/things/service/persistence/serializer/ThingMongoEventAdapter.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import org.eclipse.ditto.json.JsonPointer;
 import org.eclipse.ditto.policies.model.Policy;
 import org.eclipse.ditto.things.model.signals.events.ThingEvent;
+import org.eclipse.ditto.things.model.signals.events.ThingMerged;
 import org.eclipse.ditto.things.service.common.config.DefaultThingConfig;
 
 import akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem;
@@ -35,6 +36,10 @@ public final class ThingMongoEventAdapter extends AbstractMongoEventAdapter<Thin
     private static final JsonPointer POLICY_IN_THING_EVENT_PAYLOAD = ThingEvent.JsonFields.THING.getPointer()
             .append(JsonPointer.of(Policy.INLINED_FIELD_NAME));
 
+    private static final JsonPointer POLICY_IN_THING_MERGED_VALUE_PAYLOAD =
+            ThingMerged.JsonFields.JSON_VALUE.getPointer()
+                    .append(JsonPointer.of(Policy.INLINED_FIELD_NAME));
+
     public ThingMongoEventAdapter(final ExtendedActorSystem system) {
         super(system, GlobalEventRegistry.getInstance(), DefaultThingConfig.of(
                 DittoServiceConfig.of(DefaultScopedConfig.dittoScoped(system.settings().config()), "things")
@@ -43,8 +48,13 @@ public ThingMongoEventAdapter(final ExtendedActorSystem system) {
 
     @Override
     protected JsonObjectBuilder performToJournalMigration(final Event<?> event, final JsonObject jsonObject) {
-        return super.performToJournalMigration(event, jsonObject)
-                .remove(POLICY_IN_THING_EVENT_PAYLOAD); // remove the policy entries from thing event payload
+        if (event instanceof ThingMerged) {
+            return super.performToJournalMigration(event, jsonObject)
+                    .remove(POLICY_IN_THING_MERGED_VALUE_PAYLOAD); // remove the policy entries from thing merged payload
+        } else {
+            return super.performToJournalMigration(event, jsonObject)
+                    .remove(POLICY_IN_THING_EVENT_PAYLOAD); // remove the policy entries from thing event payload
+        }
     }
 
 }