diff --git a/.github/workflows/dev_pr/link.js b/.github/workflows/dev_pr/link.js
index a3e0553c923..7bc678b8dfe 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/dev_pr/link.js
+++ b/.github/workflows/dev_pr/link.js
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ async function commentGitHubURL(github, context, pullRequestNumber, issueID) {
   const issueInfo = await helpers.getGitHubInfo(github, context, issueID, pullRequestNumber);
   const message = "* Closes: #" + issueInfo.number
   if (issueInfo) {
-    if (context.payload.pull_request.body.includes(message)) {
+    if (context.payload.pull_request.body != null && context.payload.pull_request.body.includes(message)) {
       return;
     }
     await github.rest.pulls.update({
diff --git a/dev/merge_arrow_pr.py b/dev/merge_arrow_pr.py
index 90b2e9b034e..6b5de253204 100755
--- a/dev/merge_arrow_pr.py
+++ b/dev/merge_arrow_pr.py
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
     os.environ.get("PR_REMOTE_NAME") or  # backward compatibility
     "apache"
 )
+# test
 PROJECT_NAME = os.environ.get('ARROW_PROJECT_NAME') or "arrow"
 
 # For testing to avoid accidentally pushing to apache