Index: theme.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/includes/theme.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.415
diff -u -r1.415 theme.inc
--- theme.inc	27 Jan 2008 19:47:06 -0000	1.415
+++ theme.inc	1 Feb 2008 14:05:01 -0000
@@ -1153,7 +1153,17 @@
 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 .' />';
   }
 }
@@ -1454,9 +1464,9 @@
 
 /**
  * Return code that emits an XML icon.
- * 
+ *
  * For most use cases, this function has been superseded by theme_feed_icon().
- * 
+ *
  * @see theme_feed_icon()
  * @param $url
  *   The url of the feed.