diff --git a/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/main/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgent.java b/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/main/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgent.java
index 72b4329266..5cca0ccbd3 100644
--- a/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/main/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgent.java
+++ b/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/main/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgent.java
@@ -386,6 +386,11 @@ public final class ZooKeeperAgent {
 
     private static Map<String, Object> valueObject(byte[] bytes) {
         Map<String, Object> value = new LinkedHashMap<>();
+        // ZooKeeper represents znodes created without a data payload as null.
+        // Expose them as empty UTF-8 values instead of passing null to decoders.
+        if (bytes == null) {
+            bytes = new byte[0];
+        }
         String utf8 = strictUtf8(bytes);
         if (utf8 != null) {
             value.put("encoding", "utf8");
diff --git a/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/test/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgentTest.java b/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/test/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgentTest.java
index c50f3518a7..0f11aa774f 100644
--- a/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/test/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgentTest.java
+++ b/agents/drivers/zookeeper/src/test/java/com/dbx/agent/zookeeper/ZooKeeperAgentTest.java
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@ import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
 import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
 import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
 import com.google.gson.JsonParser;
+import org.apache.curator.framework.CuratorFramework;
+import org.apache.curator.framework.CuratorFrameworkFactory;
+import org.apache.curator.retry.ExponentialBackoffRetry;
 import org.apache.curator.test.TestingServer;
+import org.apache.zookeeper.CreateMode;
+import org.apache.zookeeper.ZooDefs;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
@@ -175,6 +180,31 @@ final class ZooKeeperAgentTest {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void kvGetReadsZnodeCreatedWithoutDataAsEmptyUtf8() throws Exception {
+        try (TestingServer server = new TestingServer();
+             CuratorFramework curator = CuratorFrameworkFactory.newClient(
+                 server.getConnectString(),
+                 new ExponentialBackoffRetry(100, 3)
+            )) {
+            curator.start();
+            curator.getZookeeperClient().getZooKeeper().create(
+                "/empty",
+                null,
+                ZooDefs.Ids.OPEN_ACL_UNSAFE,
+                CreateMode.PERSISTENT
+            );
+            connect(server);
+
+            JsonObject get = result(request(3, "kv_get", "{\"key\":\"/empty\"}"));
+
+            Assertions.assertTrue(get.get("found").getAsBoolean());
+            Assertions.assertEquals("utf8", get.getAsJsonObject("value").get("encoding").getAsString());
+            Assertions.assertEquals("", get.getAsJsonObject("value").get("data").getAsString());
+            Assertions.assertEquals(0, get.getAsJsonObject("metadata").get("valueSize").getAsInt());
+        }
+    }
+
     @Test
     void kvPutUpdatesExistingZnode() throws Exception {
         try (TestingServer server = new TestingServer()) {