diff --git a/src/input/readers/Ascii.cc b/src/input/readers/Ascii.cc
index d18560c42c..99e1889bb0 100644
--- a/src/input/readers/Ascii.cc
+++ b/src/input/readers/Ascii.cc
@@ -348,9 +348,10 @@ Value* Ascii::EntryToVal(string s, FieldMapping field)
 			pos++;
 			}
 
-		// Test if the string ends with a set_separator. If it does
-		// we have to push an zero-length val on top of it.
-		if ( *s.rbegin() == set_separator[0] )
+		// Test if the string ends with a set_separator... or if the
+		// complete string is empty. In either of these cases we have
+		// to push an empty val on top of it.
+		if ( s.empty() || *s.rbegin() == set_separator[0] )
 			{
 			lvals[pos] = EntryToVal("", field.subType());
 			if ( lvals[pos] == 0 )
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.setspecialcases/out b/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.setspecialcases/out
index 28d1e025bf..62229f7f37 100644
--- a/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.setspecialcases/out
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.setspecialcases/out
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ testing
 ,
 testing
 }, s=[testing, ]],
+[6] = [s={
+
+}, s=[]],
 [1] = [s={
 testing,testing,testing,
 }, s=[testing,testing,testing,]],
diff --git a/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/setspecialcases.bro b/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/setspecialcases.bro
index 29819a795f..239bdfe7e7 100644
--- a/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/setspecialcases.bro
+++ b/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/setspecialcases.bro
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 3	,testing	,testing
 4	testing,	testing,
 5	,,,	,,,
+6		
 @TEST-END-FILE