Our main objective in this note is to prove the following. Suppose R is a ring having an idempotent element e ( e ≠ 0 , e ≠ 1 ) which satisfies: ( M 1 ) x R = 0 implies x = 0. ( M 2 ) e R x = 0 implies x = 0 ( and hence R x = 0 implies x = 0 ) . ( M 3 ) e x e R ( 1 − e ) = 0 implies e x e = 0. If d is any multiplicative derivation of R , then d is additive.