diff --git a/src/query/src/qAggMain.c b/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
index 8d9560f7ec56cf13ff6da0b1a41d784763a7e950..1aecac1b2f7f38e1590836c4b113abf762fb6fc7 100644
--- a/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
+++ b/src/query/src/qAggMain.c
@@ -2912,7 +2912,8 @@ 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));