diff --git a/plugins/parsers/xpath/parser.go b/plugins/parsers/xpath/parser.go
index 2f3290dcc..bac9a7fea 100644
--- a/plugins/parsers/xpath/parser.go
+++ b/plugins/parsers/xpath/parser.go
@@ -100,11 +100,9 @@ func (p *Parser) Parse(buf []byte) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		if len(selectedNodes) < 1 || selectedNodes[0] == nil {
+		if (len(selectedNodes) < 1 || selectedNodes[0] == nil) && !p.AllowEmptySelection {
 			p.debugEmptyQuery("metric selection", doc, config.Selection)
-			if !p.AllowEmptySelection {
-				return metrics, fmt.Errorf("cannot parse with empty selection node")
-			}
+			return metrics, fmt.Errorf("cannot parse with empty selection node")
 		}
 		p.Log.Debugf("Number of selected metric nodes: %d", len(selectedNodes))