diff --git a/modules/ml/include/opencv2/ml/ml.hpp b/modules/ml/include/opencv2/ml/ml.hpp
index 68416846a..867da610d 100644
--- a/modules/ml/include/opencv2/ml/ml.hpp
+++ b/modules/ml/include/opencv2/ml/ml.hpp
@@ -1926,7 +1926,7 @@ public:
                       CvANN_MLP_TrainParams params = CvANN_MLP_TrainParams(),
                       int flags=0 );    
     
-    CV_WRAP virtual float predict( const cv::Mat& inputs, cv::Mat& outputs ) const;
+    CV_WRAP virtual float predict( const cv::Mat& inputs, CV_OUT cv::Mat& outputs ) const;
 #endif
     
     CV_WRAP virtual void clear();
diff --git a/samples/python2/letter_recog.py b/samples/python2/letter_recog.py
index c66591d7f..0d4d18f54 100644
--- a/samples/python2/letter_recog.py
+++ b/samples/python2/letter_recog.py
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ class SVM(LetterStatModel):
     def predict(self, samples):
         return np.float32( [self.model.predict(s) for s in samples] )
 
+
 class MLP(LetterStatModel):
     def __init__(self):
         self.model = cv2.ANN_MLP()
@@ -109,10 +110,8 @@ class MLP(LetterStatModel):
         self.model.train(samples, np.float32(new_responses), None, params = params)
 
     def predict(self, samples):
-        pass
-        #return np.float32( [self.model.predict(s) for s in samples] )
-
-
+        ret, resp = self.model.predict(samples)
+        return resp.argmax(-1)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':