diff --git a/packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_sg_scraper.py b/packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_sg_scraper.py
index 1d9c649b30b..3f514a57ca8 100644
--- a/packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_sg_scraper.py
+++ b/packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_sg_scraper.py
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ def figure_rst(figure_list, sources_dir):
         for figure_path in figure_list
     ]
     images_rst = ""
+    if not figure_paths:
+        return images_rst
     figure_name = figure_paths[0]
     ext = os.path.splitext(figure_name)[1]
     figure_path = os.path.join("images", os.path.basename(figure_name))