diff --git a/src/PERI/atom_vec_peri.cpp b/src/PERI/atom_vec_peri.cpp
index 4fdf661f5b..dab0176579 100644
--- a/src/PERI/atom_vec_peri.cpp
+++ b/src/PERI/atom_vec_peri.cpp
@@ -540,6 +540,7 @@ void AtomVecPeri::data_atom(double *coord, int imagetmp, char **values)
   vfrac[nlocal] = atof(values[2]);
   density[nlocal] = atof(values[3]);
   rmass[nlocal] = density[nlocal];
+  if (rmass[nlocal] <= 0.0) error->one("Invalid mass value");
 
   x[nlocal][0] = coord[0];
   x[nlocal][1] = coord[1];
@@ -571,6 +572,7 @@ int AtomVecPeri::data_atom_hybrid(int nlocal, char **values)
   vfrac[nlocal] = atof(values[0]);
   density[nlocal] = atof(values[1]);
   rmass[nlocal] = density[nlocal];
+  if (rmass[nlocal] <= 0.0) error->one("Invalid mass value");
 
   v[nlocal][0] = 0.0;
   v[nlocal][1] = 0.0;