diff --git a/src/main/java/picard/sam/RevertSam.java b/src/main/java/picard/sam/RevertSam.java
index d608b324a..0220a85d7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/picard/sam/RevertSam.java
+++ b/src/main/java/picard/sam/RevertSam.java
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ public void revertSamRecord(final SAMRecord rec) {
                 for (final SAMRecord rec : recs) {
                     // The only valid quality score encoding scheme is standard; if it's not standard, change it.
                     final FastqQualityFormat recordFormat = readGroupToFormat.get(rec.getReadGroup());
-                    if (!recordFormat.equals(FastqQualityFormat.Standard)) {
+                    if (recordFormat != null && !recordFormat.equals(FastqQualityFormat.Standard)) {
                         final byte[] quals = rec.getBaseQualities();
                         for (int i = 0; i < quals.length; i++) {
                             quals[i] -= SolexaQualityConverter.ILLUMINA_TO_PHRED_SUBTRAHEND;
diff --git a/src/test/java/picard/sam/RevertSamTest.java b/src/test/java/picard/sam/RevertSamTest.java
index fe533c17f..d859d28d4 100755
--- a/src/test/java/picard/sam/RevertSamTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/picard/sam/RevertSamTest.java
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@ public void testGetDefaultExtension() {
     }
 
     @Test(expectedExceptions = PicardException.class)
-    public void testNoRgInfo() {
+    public void testNoRgInfoOutputByRg() {
         final String [] args = new String[]{
                 "I=testdata/picard/sam/bam2fastq/paired/bad/missing-rg-info.sam",
                 "OUTPUT_BY_READGROUP=true",
@@ -453,4 +453,17 @@ public void testNoRgInfo() {
         };
         runPicardCommandLine(args);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testNoRgInfoSanitize() throws Exception {
+        final File output = File.createTempFile("no-rg-reverted", ".sam");
+        output.deleteOnExit();
+        final String [] args = new String[]{
+                "I=testdata/picard/sam/bam2fastq/paired/bad/missing-rg-info.sam",
+                "SANITIZE=true",
+                "O=" + output.getAbsolutePath()
+        };
+        Assert.assertEquals(runPicardCommandLine(args), 0);
+        verifyPositiveResults(output, new RevertSam(), true, true, false, false, null, 240, null, null);
+    }
 }