bencode/encode.go      | 6 +++---
 bencode/encode_test.go | 2 +-

diff --git a/bencode/encode.go b/bencode/encode.go
index de93736245bea44553fa36dd560062fd8532a4d5..c6726edff2a8cb8a01adea16de75e0a0954c3d9d 100644
--- a/bencode/encode.go
+++ b/bencode/encode.go
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ 	scratch [64]byte
 }
 
 func (e *encoder) encode(v interface{}) (err error) {
+	if v == nil {
+		return
+	}
 	defer func() {
 		if e := recover(); e != nil {
 			if _, ok := e.(runtime.Error); ok {
@@ -106,9 +109,6 @@ 	return false
 }
 
 func (e *encoder) reflect_value(v reflect.Value) {
-	if !v.IsValid() {
-		return
-	}
 
 	if e.reflect_marshaler(v) {
 		return
diff --git a/bencode/encode_test.go b/bencode/encode_test.go
index b2a7e612c26b1911428b9ee792dca65ee9fb2f02..86ecc06cfcfbfc23f6a08ffb9fc4fc298affd841 100644
--- a/bencode/encode_test.go
+++ b/bencode/encode_test.go
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
 func TestRandomEncode(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, test := range random_encode_tests {
 		data, err := Marshal(test.value)
-		assert.NoError(t, err)
+		assert.NoError(t, err, "%s", test)
 		assert.EqualValues(t, test.expected, string(data))
 	}
 }