diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
index 653a7ca22a..9f55c6a1be 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
@@ -203,7 +203,9 @@ def location_to_query(location, wildcard=True):
 
     if wildcard:
         for key, value in query.items():
-            if value is None:
+            # don't allow wildcards on revision, since public is set as None, so
+            # its ambiguous between None as a real value versus None=wildcard
+            if value is None and key != 'revision':
                 del query[key]
 
     return query