lib/PublicInbox/Mbox.pm       | 7 ++++++-
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm | 1 +
 t/psgi_search.t               | 4 ++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Mbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Mbox.pm
index 84cc384529f174cd020bbfb2360519720b5d0929..04c86cc196515e345d36491b200a1d29f3e4bd17 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Mbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Mbox.pm
@@ -157,7 +157,12 @@ 	my $body = $class->new($ctx, $cb);
 	# http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/gzip
 	$body->{hdr} = [ 'Content-Type', 'application/gzip' ];
 	$body->{fn} = $fn;
-	my $hdr = $body->getline; # fill in Content-Disposition filename
+	# fill in Content-Disposition filename
+	my $hdr = $body->getline;
+	if ($body->{hdr}) {
+		return [ 404, ['Content-Type','text/plain'],
+			[ "No results found\n" ] ];
+	}
 	[ 200, $hdr, $body ];
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
index 219006a0d7070dbfc58530255eba7aeba1919ff4..1c4442e4d7b8a300775c817aac435b47da9abb56 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchView.pm
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ sub mbox_results {
 	my ($ctx) = @_;
 	my $q = PublicInbox::SearchQuery->new($ctx->{qp});
 	my $x = $q->{x};
+	require PublicInbox::Mbox;
 	return PublicInbox::Mbox::mbox_all($ctx, $q->{'q'}) if $x eq 'm';
 	sres_top_html($ctx);
 }
diff --git a/t/psgi_search.t b/t/psgi_search.t
index 84b3daa3402ac071b4562addc70ef3e6e547e71d..cf5a7e91b04de15ec9e77d82ac4824a8d03c57a4 100644
--- a/t/psgi_search.t
+++ b/t/psgi_search.t
@@ -70,6 +70,10 @@ 	local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { push @$warn, @_ };
 	$res = $cb->(GET('/test/?q=s:test&l=5e'));
 	is($res->code, 200, 'successful search result');
 	is_deeply([], $warn, 'no warnings from non-numeric comparison');
+
+	$res = $cb->(POST('/test/?q=s:bogus&x=m'));
+	is($res->code, 404, 'failed search result gives 404');
+	is_deeply([], $warn, 'no warnings');
 });
 
 done_testing();