diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
index 2120f42..7107afb 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
@@ -158,12 +158,16 @@ public class IndexSearcher extends Searcher {
 
   // inherit javadoc
   @Override
-  public TopDocs search(Weight weight, Filter filter, final int nDocs) throws IOException {
+  public TopDocs search(Weight weight, Filter filter, int nDocs) throws IOException {
+
+    if (nDocs > maxDoc()) {
+      nDocs = maxDoc();
+    }
 
     if (nDocs <= 0) {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException("nDocs must be > 0");
     }