diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScanner.java b/server/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScanner.java
index 42c7d7cd67ce2..2413ab225c879 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScanner.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScanner.java
@@ -89,16 +89,29 @@ public int preceding(int offset) {
             innerStart = innerEnd;
             innerEnd = windowEnd;
         } else {
-            windowStart = innerStart = mainBreak.preceding(offset);
-            windowEnd = innerEnd = mainBreak.following(offset - 1);
-            // expand to next break until we reach maxLen
-            while (innerEnd - innerStart < maxLen) {
-                int newEnd = mainBreak.following(innerEnd);
-                if (newEnd == DONE || (newEnd - innerStart) > maxLen) {
-                    break;
-                }
-                windowEnd = innerEnd = newEnd;
+            innerStart = Math.max(mainBreak.preceding(offset), 0);
+
+            final int targetEndOffset = offset + Math.max(0, maxLen - (offset - innerStart));
+            final int textEndIndex = getText().getEndIndex();
+
+            if (targetEndOffset + 1 > textEndIndex) {
+                innerEnd = textEndIndex;
+            } else {
+                innerEnd = mainBreak.preceding(targetEndOffset + 1);
+            }
+
+            assert innerEnd != DONE && innerEnd >= innerStart;
+
+            // in case no break was found up to maxLen, find one afterwards.
+            if (innerStart == innerEnd) {
+                innerEnd = mainBreak.following(targetEndOffset);
+                assert innerEnd - innerStart > maxLen;
+            } else {
+                assert innerEnd - innerStart <= maxLen;
             }
+
+            windowStart = innerStart;
+            windowEnd = innerEnd;
         }
 
         if (innerEnd - innerStart > maxLen) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScannerTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScannerTests.java
index 26cc2c6a5a01f..9b2bcd95da6ae 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScannerTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/BoundedBreakIteratorScannerTests.java
@@ -124,4 +124,20 @@ public void testBoundedSentence() {
             );
         }
     }
+
+    public void testTextThatEndsBeforeMaxLen() {
+        BreakIterator bi = BoundedBreakIteratorScanner.getSentence(Locale.ROOT, 1000);
+
+        final String text = "This is the first test sentence. Here is the second one.";
+
+        int offset = text.indexOf("first");
+        bi.setText(text);
+        assertEquals(0, bi.preceding(offset));
+        assertEquals(text.length(), bi.following(offset - 1));
+
+        offset = text.indexOf("second");
+        bi.setText(text);
+        assertEquals(33, bi.preceding(offset));
+        assertEquals(text.length(), bi.following(offset - 1));
+    }
 }