Same file as bug #42486 (copy is attached there). To reprodue: new SlideShow(new HSLFSlideShow("uksg_presentation.ppt")).getSlides()[0].getShapes()[3].getShapeType(); Happens fairly often, about half of the PPTs I was working with exhibited this problem somewhere in them. Also affects getShapeName() since the code is practically the same.
Fixed The problem was with shape groups - ShapeGroup.getShapeType() threw NPE. Yegor