diff --git a/rag/nlp/query.py b/rag/nlp/query.py
index d3c2f1432..b58efb859 100644
--- a/rag/nlp/query.py
+++ b/rag/nlp/query.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ class FulltextQueryer:
         otxt = txt
         for r, p in patts:
             txt = re.sub(r, p, txt, flags=re.IGNORECASE)
-        if not otxt:
+        if not txt:
             txt = otxt
         return txt