diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
index f5c3fadfca47c2abb59b81d66482c8c4b21a3288..30f9ffb9aec30fa56c1eba6b45110830a9702938 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
@@ -639,7 +639,7 @@ qemuMonitorJSONKeywordStringToJSON(const char *str, const char *firstkeyword)
     size_t i;
 
     if (!(ret = virJSONValueNewObject()))
-        goto error;
+        return NULL;
 
     if (qemuParseKeywords(str, &keywords, &values, &nkeywords, 1) < 0)
         goto error;