diff --git a/lib/restclient/request.rb b/lib/restclient/request.rb
index 215fe0c..7327b92 100644
--- a/lib/restclient/request.rb
+++ b/lib/restclient/request.rb
@@ -207,7 +207,9 @@ module RestClient
     end
 
     def self.decode content_encoding, body
-      if content_encoding == 'gzip' and not body.empty?
+      if (!body) || body.empty?
+        body
+      elsif content_encoding == 'gzip'
         Zlib::GzipReader.new(StringIO.new(body)).read
       elsif content_encoding == 'deflate'
         Zlib::Inflate.new.inflate body
diff --git a/spec/request_spec.rb b/spec/request_spec.rb
index 4227ab6..f0dac7a 100644
--- a/spec/request_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/request_spec.rb
@@ -26,10 +26,16 @@ describe RestClient::Request do
   end
 
   describe "compression" do
+
     it "decodes an uncompressed result body by passing it straight through" do
       RestClient::Request.decode(nil, 'xyz').should == 'xyz'
     end
 
+    it "doesn't fail for nil bodies" do
+      RestClient::Request.decode('gzip', nil).should be_nil
+    end
+
+
     it "decodes a gzip body" do
       RestClient::Request.decode('gzip', "\037\213\b\b\006'\252H\000\003t\000\313T\317UH\257\312,HM\341\002\000G\242(\r\v\000\000\000").should == "i'm gziped\n"
     end