bencode/bytes.go      |  7 +++++++
 bencode/bytes_test.go | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

diff --git a/bencode/bytes.go b/bencode/bytes.go
index 5e1018e406779879197bcb3502c31b880c77b41a..c3a51cd0e285370cfde9517a449cba3566c281f7 100644
--- a/bencode/bytes.go
+++ b/bencode/bytes.go
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 package bencode
 
+import (
+	"errors"
+)
+
 type Bytes []byte
 
 var (
@@ -14,5 +18,8 @@ 	return nil
 }
 
 func (me Bytes) MarshalBencode() ([]byte, error) {
+	if len(me) == 0 {
+		return nil, errors.New("marshalled Bytes should not be zero-length")
+	}
 	return me, nil
 }
diff --git a/bencode/bytes_test.go b/bencode/bytes_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..08b4f98ba0b38f5e7a239e3575671dd439634895
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bencode/bytes_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package bencode
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	qt "github.com/frankban/quicktest"
+)
+
+func TestBytesMarshalNil(t *testing.T) {
+	var b Bytes
+	Marshal(b)
+}
+
+type structWithBytes struct {
+	A Bytes
+	B Bytes
+}
+
+func TestMarshalNilStructBytes(t *testing.T) {
+	_, err := Marshal(structWithBytes{B: Bytes("i42e")})
+	c := qt.New(t)
+	c.Assert(err, qt.IsNotNil)
+}
+
+type structWithOmitEmptyBytes struct {
+	A Bytes `bencode:",omitempty"`
+	B Bytes `bencode:",omitempty"`
+}
+
+func TestMarshalNilStructBytesOmitEmpty(t *testing.T) {
+	c := qt.New(t)
+	b, err := Marshal(structWithOmitEmptyBytes{B: Bytes("i42e")})
+	c.Assert(err, qt.IsNil)
+	t.Logf("%q", b)
+	var s structWithBytes
+	err = Unmarshal(b, &s)
+	c.Assert(err, qt.IsNil)
+	c.Check(s.B, qt.DeepEquals, Bytes("i42e"))
+}