diff --git a/jolt-core/src/main/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/shiftr/spec/ShiftrCompositeSpec.java b/jolt-core/src/main/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/shiftr/spec/ShiftrCompositeSpec.java
index 58036988..efbb73ca 100644
--- a/jolt-core/src/main/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/shiftr/spec/ShiftrCompositeSpec.java
+++ b/jolt-core/src/main/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/shiftr/spec/ShiftrCompositeSpec.java
@@ -201,10 +201,12 @@ private enum ExecutionStrategy {
             void processMap( ShiftrCompositeSpec spec, Map<String, Object> inputMap, WalkedPath walkedPath, Map<String, Object> output ) {
 
                 for( String key : spec.literalChildren.keySet() ) {
-                    Object subInput = inputMap.get( key );
 
-                    if ( subInput != null ) {
-                        // we know the .get(key) will not return null
+                    // only recurse down if the literalChild is a key in the input map
+                    if ( inputMap.containsKey( key ) ) {
+
+                        // At this point subInput could be null, and that is ok
+                        Object subInput = inputMap.get( key );
                         spec.literalChildren.get( key ).apply( key, subInput, walkedPath, output );
                     }
                 }
diff --git a/jolt-core/src/test/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/ShiftrTest.java b/jolt-core/src/test/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/ShiftrTest.java
index beec218f..448cc650 100644
--- a/jolt-core/src/test/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/ShiftrTest.java
+++ b/jolt-core/src/test/java/com/bazaarvoice/jolt/ShiftrTest.java
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ public Object[][] getTestCaseUnits() {
             {"mergeParallelArrays3_and-filter"},
             {"multiPlacement"},
             {"objectToArray"},
+            {"passNullThru"},
             {"passThru"},
             {"prefixDataToArray"},
             {"prefixedData"},
diff --git a/jolt-core/src/test/resources/json/shiftr/passNullThru.json b/jolt-core/src/test/resources/json/shiftr/passNullThru.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7e2b6a31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jolt-core/src/test/resources/json/shiftr/passNullThru.json
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+{
+    "input": {
+        "key": null,
+        "bunch-O-keys" : {
+            "a" : null,
+            "b" : null,
+            "c" : null
+        }
+    },
+
+    "spec": {
+        "key": "value",
+        "bunch-O-keys" : {
+            "*" : "values.&"
+        }
+    },
+
+    "expected": {
+        "value" : null,
+        "values" : {
+            "a" : null,
+            "b" : null,
+            "c" : null
+        }
+    }
+}