diff --git a/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.cpp b/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.cpp
index 80dfedf21..6d895aa6d 100644
--- a/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.cpp
+++ b/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.cpp
@@ -36,18 +36,16 @@ namespace kiwix {
 
   /* Open Xapian readable database */
   void XapianSearcher::openIndex(const string &directoryPath) {
-    bool indexInZim = false;
     try
     {
       zim::File zimFile = zim::File(directoryPath);
-      zim::Article xapianArticle = zimFile.getArticle('Z', "/Z/fulltextIndex/xapian");
-      if (xapianArticle.good())
-      {
-        zim::offset_type dbOffset = xapianArticle.getOffset();
-        int databasefd = open(directoryPath.c_str(), O_RDONLY);
-        lseek(databasefd, dbOffset, SEEK_SET);
-        this->readableDatabase = Xapian::Database(databasefd);
-      }
+      zim::Article xapianArticle = zimFile.getArticle('Z', "/fulltextIndex/xapian");
+      if ( ! xapianArticle.good())
+          throw NoXapianIndexInZim();
+      zim::offset_type dbOffset = xapianArticle.getOffset();
+      int databasefd = open(directoryPath.c_str(), O_RDONLY);
+      lseek(databasefd, dbOffset, SEEK_SET);
+      this->readableDatabase = Xapian::Database(databasefd);
     } catch (zim::ZimFileFormatError)
     {
       this->readableDatabase = Xapian::Database(directoryPath);
diff --git a/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.h b/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.h
index e01283be7..3fb24b29e 100644
--- a/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.h
+++ b/src/common/kiwix/xapianSearcher.h
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ using namespace std;
 
 namespace kiwix {
 
+  class NoXapianIndexInZim: public exception
+  {
+   virtual const char* what() const throw()
+    {
+      return "There is no fulltext index in the zim file";
+    }
+  };
+
   class XapianSearcher : public Searcher {
     
   public: