bencode/decode.go      | 6 ++++--
 bencode/decode_test.go | 1 +

diff --git a/bencode/decode.go b/bencode/decode.go
index 1007db906c58eeafd46b282c2348d1f509122ded..e72a12d5cf63418b492f9c0e9b9e7e9b7fbf651a 100644
--- a/bencode/decode.go
+++ b/bencode/decode.go
@@ -690,7 +690,8 @@ }
 
 func (d *Decoder) parseDictInterface() interface{} {
 	dict := make(map[string]interface{})
-	lastKey := ""
+	var lastKey string
+	lastKeyOk := false
 	for {
 		start := d.Offset
 		keyi, ok := d.parseValueInterface()
@@ -705,7 +706,7 @@ 				Offset: d.Offset,
 				What:   errors.New("non-string key in a dict"),
 			})
 		}
-		if key <= lastKey {
+		if lastKeyOk && key <= lastKey {
 			d.throwSyntaxError(start, fmt.Errorf("dict keys unsorted: %q <= %q", key, lastKey))
 		}
 		start = d.Offset
@@ -715,6 +716,7 @@ 			d.throwSyntaxError(start, fmt.Errorf("dict elem missing value [key=%v]", key))
 		}
 
 		lastKey = key
+		lastKeyOk = true
 		dict[key] = valuei
 	}
 	return dict
diff --git a/bencode/decode_test.go b/bencode/decode_test.go
index 8cb972f81e6cde9868fe7af544e1d90261b3b4a3..eaf9e71ea09749460b4badb0400858efd3741ec8 100644
--- a/bencode/decode_test.go
+++ b/bencode/decode_test.go
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ 		"t": "\x9a\x87\x01",
 		"v": "TR%=",
 		"y": "r",
 	}},
+	{"d0:i420ee", map[string]interface{}{"": int64(420)}},
 }
 
 func TestRandomDecode(t *testing.T) {