Index: theme.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/includes/theme.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.408
diff -u -r1.408 theme.inc
--- theme.inc	31 Dec 2007 08:54:36 -0000	1.408
+++ theme.inc	4 Jan 2008 15:08:29 -0000
@@ -1131,7 +1131,17 @@
 function theme_image($path, $alt = '', $title = '', $attributes = NULL, $getsize = TRUE) {
   if (!$getsize || (is_file($path) && (list($width, $height, $type, $image_attributes) = @getimagesize($path)))) {
     $attributes = drupal_attributes($attributes);
-    $url = (url($path) == $path) ? $path : (base_path() . $path);
+    if (url($path) == $path) {
+      $url = $path;
+    }
+    else {
+      if (is_file($path)) {
+        $url = (base_path() . $path);
+      }
+      else {
+        return '';
+      }
+    }
     return '<img src="'. check_url($url) .'" alt="'. check_plain($alt) .'" title="'. check_plain($title) .'" '. (isset($image_attributes) ? $image_attributes : '') . $attributes .' />';
   }
 }