diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PropertyCacheFile.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PropertyCacheFile.java
index 7abbea036..c1330db24 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PropertyCacheFile.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PropertyCacheFile.java
@@ -120,7 +120,9 @@ final class PropertyCacheFile
                     .debug("Unable to save cache file.", e);
             }
             finally {
-                this.flushAndCloseOutStream(out);
+                if (out != null) {
+                    this.flushAndCloseOutStream(out);
+                }
             }
         }
     }