diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/model/SimpleShape.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/model/SimpleShape.java
index 0d8992f36..b0bdcadcc 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/model/SimpleShape.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hslf/model/SimpleShape.java
@@ -314,12 +314,17 @@ public class SimpleShape extends Shape {
         return null;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Search for EscherClientDataRecord, if found, convert its contents into an array of HSLF records
+     *
+     * @return an array of HSLF records contained in the shape's EscherClientDataRecord or <code>null</code>
+     */
     protected Record[] getClientRecords() {
         if(_clientData == null){
             EscherRecord r = Shape.getEscherChild(getSpContainer(), EscherClientDataRecord.RECORD_ID);
             //ddf can return EscherContainerRecord with recordId=EscherClientDataRecord.RECORD_ID
             //convert in to EscherClientDataRecord on the fly
-            if(!(r instanceof EscherClientDataRecord)){
+            if(r != null && !(r instanceof EscherClientDataRecord)){
                 byte[] data = r.serialize();
                 r = new EscherClientDataRecord();
                 r.fillFields(data, 0, new DefaultEscherRecordFactory());
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/extractor/TestExtractor.java b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/extractor/TestExtractor.java
index f04fbbd5b..9c213d477 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/extractor/TestExtractor.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/testcases/org/apache/poi/hslf/extractor/TestExtractor.java
@@ -237,14 +237,7 @@ public final class TestExtractor extends TestCase {
 		filename = dirname + "/45543.ppt";
 		ppe = new PowerPointExtractor(filename);
 
-		try {
-			text = ppe.getText();
-		} catch (NullPointerException e) {
-			// TODO - fix this failing test
-			// This test was failing here with NPE as at svn r745972.
-			// At that time, the class name was 'TextExtractor' which caused the build script to skip it
-			return; // for the moment skip the rest of this test.
-		}
+        text = ppe.getText();
 		assertFalse("Comments not in by default", contains(text, "testdoc"));
 		
 		ppe.setCommentsByDefault(true);