diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 382136c52..1acdb84e7 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
    exception.
    Bugzilla Report 53964
 
+ * <javadoc> caused a NullPointerException when no destdir was set.
+   Bugzilla Report 55949
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Javadoc.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Javadoc.java
index 045d6d16d..572720448 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Javadoc.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Javadoc.java
@@ -2447,7 +2447,7 @@ public class Javadoc extends Task {
         if (!postProcessGeneratedJavadocs) {
             return;
         }
-        if (!destDir.isDirectory()) {
+        if (destDir != null && !destDir.isDirectory()) {
             log("No javadoc created, no need to post-process anything",
                 Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
             return;