diff --git a/src/conf/node_device_conf.c b/src/conf/node_device_conf.c
index 9bbff97ffd..1f39e2cbfd 100644
--- a/src/conf/node_device_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/node_device_conf.c
@@ -2177,10 +2177,10 @@ virNodeDeviceDefParse(const char *str,
     g_autoptr(xmlDoc) xml = NULL;
     g_autoptr(virNodeDeviceDef) def = NULL;
 
-    if ((xml = virXMLParse(filename, str, _("(node_device_definition)"), NULL, false))) {
-        def = virNodeDeviceDefParseNode(xml, xmlDocGetRootElement(xml),
-                                        create, virt_type);
-    }
+    if (!(xml = virXMLParse(filename, str, _("(node_device_definition)"), NULL, false)) ||
+        !(def = virNodeDeviceDefParseNode(xml, xmlDocGetRootElement(xml),
+                                          create, virt_type)))
+        return NULL;
 
     if (parserCallbacks) {
         int ret = 0;