lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 87c2c9fcdb57c14a50f625192b36a344abdc8ffe..ada713c741657ef16522d4b118cffebcbd95c4be 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ sub msg_by_path ($$;$) {
 	my ($self, $path, $ref) = @_;
 	# TODO: allow other refs:
 	my $str = git($self)->cat_file('HEAD:'.$path, $ref);
-	$$str =~ s/\A[\r\n]*From [^\r\n]*\r?\n//s;
+	$$str =~ s/\A[\r\n]*From [^\r\n]*\r?\n//s if $str;
 	$str;
 }