diff --git a/exec.c b/exec.c
index 9cbde85d8c..778263f1c6 100644
--- a/exec.c
+++ b/exec.c
@@ -3540,6 +3540,7 @@ void *address_space_map(AddressSpace *as,
 
     if (!memory_access_is_direct(mr, is_write)) {
         if (atomic_xchg(&bounce.in_use, true)) {
+            *plen = 0;
             return NULL;
         }
         /* Avoid unbounded allocations */
diff --git a/include/exec/memory.h b/include/exec/memory.h
index bd7fdd6081..af8ca7824e 100644
--- a/include/exec/memory.h
+++ b/include/exec/memory.h
@@ -2314,7 +2314,8 @@ bool address_space_access_valid(AddressSpace *as, hwaddr addr, hwaddr len,
 /* address_space_map: map a physical memory region into a host virtual address
  *
  * May map a subset of the requested range, given by and returned in @plen.
- * May return %NULL if resources needed to perform the mapping are exhausted.
+ * May return %NULL and set *@plen to zero(0), if resources needed to perform
+ * the mapping are exhausted.
  * Use only for reads OR writes - not for read-modify-write operations.
  * Use cpu_register_map_client() to know when retrying the map operation is
  * likely to succeed.