diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala
index ff8576157305ba8075176ed406c18750dcae81bc..50ee6cd4085eaa67f1779987a7f6832b6f324bdc 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/AnalysisException.scala
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class AnalysisException protected[sql] (
   }
 
   override def getMessage: String = {
-    val planAnnotation = plan.map(p => s";\n$p").getOrElse("")
+    val planAnnotation = Option(plan).flatten.map(p => s";\n$p").getOrElse("")
     getSimpleMessage + planAnnotation
   }
 
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
index 806381008aba61176ce7de26e2f143522bada9de..8a156df9da95f7a0e5dcf095f7debadb30f6f105 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLQuerySuite.scala
@@ -2483,4 +2483,12 @@ class SQLQuerySuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
       assert(sql("SELECT * FROM array_tbl where arr = ARRAY(1L)").count == 1)
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-20164: AnalysisException should be tolerant to null query plan") {
+    try {
+      throw new AnalysisException("", None, None, plan = null)
+    } catch {
+      case ae: AnalysisException => assert(ae.plan == null && ae.getMessage == ae.getSimpleMessage)
+    }
+  }
 }