diff --git a/cpp/src/wholememory_ops/functions/gather_scatter_func.cuh b/cpp/src/wholememory_ops/functions/gather_scatter_func.cuh
index 95fa496df..62a7dcb5e 100644
--- a/cpp/src/wholememory_ops/functions/gather_scatter_func.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/wholememory_ops/functions/gather_scatter_func.cuh
@@ -287,6 +287,7 @@ __global__ void gather_func_kernel(wholememory_gref_t embedding_gref,
     OutputT* output_ptr = output + output_desc.storage_offset + output_stride * output_idx;
     if (!use_shm) { my_shared = output_ptr; }
     int64_t embedding_table_idx = indices[output_idx];
+    if (embedding_table_idx < 0) continue;
     EmbeddingT* emb_ptr =
       &embedding_dev_ref[embedding_desc.storage_offset + embedding_table_idx * embedding_stride];
 
@@ -429,6 +430,7 @@ __global__ void scatter_func_kernel(const InputT* input,
     }
     for (int e = 0; e < cur_idx_lines; e++) {
       int64_t embedding_table_idx = indices[input_idx + e];
+      if (embedding_table_idx < 0) continue;
       EmbeddingT* emb_ptr =
         &embedding_dev_ref[embedding_desc.storage_offset + embedding_table_idx * embedding_stride];