diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/innodb/r/innodb_bug54044.result b/mysql-test/suite/innodb/r/innodb_bug54044.result
index 4935febcbfb..d80c451c841 100644
--- a/mysql-test/suite/innodb/r/innodb_bug54044.result
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/innodb/r/innodb_bug54044.result
@@ -15,3 +15,9 @@ tmp	CREATE TABLE `tmp` (
   `NULL` binary(0) DEFAULT NULL
 ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
 DROP TABLE tmp;
+CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(3)) ENGINE=InnoDB;
+INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('foo'),('bar');
+FLUSH TABLES;
+CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tmp ENGINE=InnoDB AS SELECT VALUES(a) FROM t1;
+ERROR HY000: Can't create table `test`.`tmp` (errno: -1 "Internal error < 0 (Not system error)")
+DROP TABLE t1;
diff --git a/mysql-test/suite/innodb/t/innodb_bug54044.test b/mysql-test/suite/innodb/t/innodb_bug54044.test
index 13c37d9c841..aa19c51018c 100644
--- a/mysql-test/suite/innodb/t/innodb_bug54044.test
+++ b/mysql-test/suite/innodb/t/innodb_bug54044.test
@@ -10,10 +10,17 @@ CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE table_54044 ENGINE = INNODB
 SHOW CREATE TABLE table_54044;
 DROP TABLE table_54044;
 
-# These 'create table' operations should fail because of
-# using NULL datatype
-
 CREATE TABLE tmp ENGINE = INNODB AS SELECT COALESCE(NULL, NULL, NULL), GREATEST(NULL, NULL), NULL;
 SHOW CREATE TABLE tmp;
 DROP TABLE tmp;
 
+# These 'create table' operations should fail because of
+# using NULL datatype
+
+CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(3)) ENGINE=InnoDB;
+INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('foo'),('bar');
+FLUSH TABLES;
+--error 1005
+CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tmp ENGINE=InnoDB AS SELECT VALUES(a) FROM t1;
+DROP TABLE t1;
+
diff --git a/storage/xtradb/handler/ha_innodb.cc b/storage/xtradb/handler/ha_innodb.cc
index a40463d3bd8..1b3a4805e78 100644
--- a/storage/xtradb/handler/ha_innodb.cc
+++ b/storage/xtradb/handler/ha_innodb.cc
@@ -6367,7 +6367,10 @@ get_innobase_type_from_mysql_type(
 	case MYSQL_TYPE_LONG_BLOB:
 		return(DATA_BLOB);
 	case MYSQL_TYPE_NULL:
-		return(DATA_FIXBINARY);
+		/* MySQL currently accepts "NULL" datatype, but will
+		reject such datatype in the next release. We will cope
+		with it and not trigger assertion failure in 5.1 */
+		break;
 	default:
 		ut_error;
 	}