bencode/decode.go      | 19 +++++--------------
 bencode/decode_test.go | 12 ++++++++----

diff --git a/bencode/decode.go b/bencode/decode.go
index 2d27d683aa9b07834690a335b69f4b3f4e6b5230..f90783413172a1a7804a01694200e9e6dddecf7b 100644
--- a/bencode/decode.go
+++ b/bencode/decode.go
@@ -264,10 +264,7 @@ 				}
 			} else {
 				_, ok := d.parse_value_interface()
 				if !ok {
-					panic(&SyntaxError{
-						Offset: d.offset,
-						What:   errors.New("unexpected end of dict, no matching value for a given key"),
-					})
+					return
 				}
 				continue
 			}
@@ -275,10 +272,7 @@ 		}
 
 		// now we need to actually parse it
 		if !d.parse_value(valuev) {
-			panic(&SyntaxError{
-				Offset: d.offset,
-				What:   errors.New("unexpected end of dict, no matching value for a given key"),
-			})
+			return
 		}
 
 		if v.Kind() == reflect.Map {
@@ -414,8 +408,8 @@
 	return false
 }
 
-// returns true if there was a value and it's now stored in 'v', otherwise there
-// was an end symbol ("e") and no value was stored
+// Returns true if there was a value and it's now stored in 'v', otherwise
+// there was an end symbol ("e") and no value was stored.
 func (d *decoder) parse_value(v reflect.Value) bool {
 	// we support one level of indirection at the moment
 	if v.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
@@ -576,10 +570,7 @@ 		}
 
 		valuei, ok := d.parse_value_interface()
 		if !ok {
-			panic(&SyntaxError{
-				Offset: d.offset,
-				What:   errors.New("unexpected end of dict, no matching value for a given key"),
-			})
+			break
 		}
 
 		dict[key] = valuei
diff --git a/bencode/decode_test.go b/bencode/decode_test.go
index a4bf84b49a0c89a84c28eb037236e5f630968b49..d519b8a6a0bdc24edf2bc77ab66938c7ad708f47 100644
--- a/bencode/decode_test.go
+++ b/bencode/decode_test.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ 	"math/big"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 )
 
@@ -29,6 +30,12 @@ 	{"i604919719469385652980544193299329427705624352086e", func() *big.Int {
 		ret, _ := big.NewInt(-1).SetString("604919719469385652980544193299329427705624352086", 10)
 		return ret
 	}()},
+	{"d1:rd6:\xd4/\xe2F\x00\x01e1:t3:\x9a\x87\x011:v4:TR%=1:y1:re", map[string]interface{}{
+		"r": map[string]interface{}{},
+		"t": "\x9a\x87\x01",
+		"v": "TR%=",
+		"y": "r",
+	}},
 }
 
 func TestRandomDecode(t *testing.T) {
@@ -39,10 +46,7 @@ 		if err != nil {
 			t.Error(err, test.data)
 			continue
 		}
-		if !reflect.DeepEqual(test.expected, value) {
-			t.Errorf("got: %v (%T), expected: %v (%T)\n",
-				value, value, test.expected, test.expected)
-		}
+		assert.EqualValues(t, test.expected, value)
 	}
 }