diff --git a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfiguration.java b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfiguration.java
index 4b17c796b1..a090ef390d 100644
--- a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfiguration.java
+++ b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfiguration.java
@@ -100,11 +100,14 @@ public class YamlConfiguration extends FileConfiguration {
 
         MappingNode node;
         try (Reader reader = new UnicodeReader(new ByteArrayInputStream(contents.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)))) {
-            node = (MappingNode) yaml.compose(reader);
-        } catch (YAMLException | IOException e) {
+            Node rawNode = yaml.compose(reader);
+            try {
+                node = (MappingNode) rawNode;
+            } catch (ClassCastException e) {
+                throw new InvalidConfigurationException("Top level is not a Map.");
+            }
+        } catch (YAMLException | IOException | ClassCastException e) {
             throw new InvalidConfigurationException(e);
-        } catch (ClassCastException e) {
-            throw new InvalidConfigurationException("Top level is not a Map.");
         }
 
         this.map.clear();
diff --git a/paper-api/src/test/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfigurationTest.java b/paper-api/src/test/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfigurationTest.java
index 194949d74a..003f45d8cd 100644
--- a/paper-api/src/test/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfigurationTest.java
+++ b/paper-api/src/test/java/org/bukkit/configuration/file/YamlConfigurationTest.java
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import org.bukkit.configuration.ConfigurationSection;
 import org.bukkit.configuration.InvalidConfigurationException;
 import org.bukkit.configuration.MemoryConfiguration;
+import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 public class YamlConfigurationTest extends FileConfigurationTest {
@@ -170,6 +171,29 @@ public class YamlConfigurationTest extends FileConfigurationTest {
         assertEquals(data, result);
     }
 
+    // SPIGOT-6885
+    @Test
+    public void testReference() throws InvalidConfigurationException {
+        String okYAML = "dummy: test\n"
+                + "conf:\n"
+                + "  - test #comment ok\n";
+        assertNotNull(toConfig(okYAML, false));
+        assertNotNull(toConfig(okYAML, true));
+
+        String badYAML = "dummy: &a test\n"
+                + "conf:\n"
+                + "  - *a #comment not ok here\n";
+        assertNotNull(toConfig(badYAML, false));
+        assertNotNull(toConfig(badYAML, true));
+    }
+
+    private YamlConfiguration toConfig(@NotNull String contents, boolean parseComments) throws InvalidConfigurationException {
+        YamlConfiguration config = new YamlConfiguration();
+        config.options().parseComments(parseComments);
+        config.loadFromString(contents);
+        return config;
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testOnlyHeader() {
         YamlConfiguration config = getConfig();