diff --git a/app/models/textile_article.rb b/app/models/textile_article.rb
index 3da4bf0..c4df339 100644
--- a/app/models/textile_article.rb
+++ b/app/models/textile_article.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class TextileArticle < Article
   end
 
   def to_html
-    RedCloth.new(self.body).to_html
+    RedCloth.new(self.body|| '').to_html
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/test/unit/textile_article_test.rb b/test/unit/textile_article_test.rb
index b0525d9..7e17f78 100644
--- a/test/unit/textile_article_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/textile_article_test.rb
@@ -23,4 +23,12 @@ class TextileArticleTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal '<p><strong>my text</strong></p>', TextileArticle.new(:body => '*my text*').to_html
   end
 
+  should 'accept empty body' do
+    a = TextileArticle.new
+    a.expects(:body).returns(nil)
+    assert_nothing_raised do
+      assert_equal '', a.to_html
+    end
+  end
+
 end
--
libgit2 0.21.2