diff --git a/kill-if-master.sh b/kill-if-master.sh
index d21147c..22a6423 100755
--- a/kill-if-master.sh
+++ b/kill-if-master.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 SERVER_ID=`cat /opt/neo4j-enterprise-1.5/conf/neo4j.properties | grep server_id | tr '=' ' ' | awk '{print $2}'`
 
+if [ ! -z '`./status.rb | grep "offline"`' ]; then 
+  exit
+fi
+
 if [ ! -z '`./status.rb | grep "$SERVER_ID @" | grep master`' ]; then 
   sleep 10
   PID=`cat /opt/neo4j-enterprise-1.5/data/neo4j-service.pid`