diff --git a/src/query/src/qAggMain.c b/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
index 33d85252630882834b95c4ba45840d7d58384b7c..5d3af0440b74f9393091b83de02a7e0b7e849569 100644
--- a/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
+++ b/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
@@ -2560,7 +2560,8 @@ static void percentile_finalizer(SQLFunctionCtx *pCtx) {
 
   tMemBucket * pMemBucket = ppInfo->pMemBucket;
   if (pMemBucket == NULL || pMemBucket->total == 0) {  // check for null
-    assert(ppInfo->numOfElems == 0);
+    if (ppInfo->stage > 0)
+      assert(ppInfo->numOfElems == 0);
     setNull(pCtx->pOutput, pCtx->outputType, pCtx->outputBytes);
   } else {
     SET_DOUBLE_VAL((double *)pCtx->pOutput, getPercentile(pMemBucket, v));