diff --git a/src/cli/plug/__init__.py b/src/cli/plug/__init__.py
index c6b41248e..ab0e5d88b 100644
--- a/src/cli/plug/__init__.py
+++ b/src/cli/plug/__init__.py
@@ -486,6 +486,7 @@ class CommandLineReport(object):
             print (_("Use '%(notranslate)s' to see valid values.") %
                    {'notranslate' : "show=off"}).encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
 
+        self.paper = paper_sizes[0] # make sure one exists
         for paper in paper_sizes:
             if paper.get_name() == self.options_dict['papers']:
                 self.paper = paper