diff --git a/extensions/vscode-api-tests/src/workspace.test.ts b/extensions/vscode-api-tests/src/workspace.test.ts
index 6a7e09de9b30f352f832c1764a850ef041f8d3ac..47c7616650a56adc506902bfe5a6e80ee2ab9df9 100644
--- a/extensions/vscode-api-tests/src/workspace.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/vscode-api-tests/src/workspace.test.ts
@@ -294,6 +294,23 @@ suite('workspace-namespace', () => {
 		});
 	});
 
+	test('registerTextDocumentContentProvider, empty doc', function () {
+
+		let registration = workspace.registerTextDocumentContentProvider('foo', {
+			provideTextDocumentContent(uri) {
+				return '';
+			}
+		});
+
+		const uri = Uri.parse('foo:doc/empty');
+
+		return workspace.openTextDocument(uri).then(doc => {
+			assert.equal(doc.getText(), '');
+			assert.equal(doc.uri.toString(), uri.toString());
+			registration.dispose();
+		});
+	});
+
 	test('registerTextDocumentContentProvider, change event', function () {
 
 		let callCount = 0;
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/api/node/extHostDocuments.ts b/src/vs/workbench/api/node/extHostDocuments.ts
index 4c24bf70d340fbc3d256517d9b95490d4dd06686..57e269d6f60ce586846396bcb05ac047dd5e8f39 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/api/node/extHostDocuments.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/api/node/extHostDocuments.ts
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ export class MainThreadDocuments {
 		this._resourceContentProvider[handle] = ResourceEditorInput.registerResourceContentProvider(scheme, {
 			provideTextContent: (uri: URI): TPromise<EditorCommon.IModel> => {
 				return this._proxy.$provideTextDocumentContent(handle, uri).then(value => {
-					if (value) {
+					if (typeof value === 'string') {
 						this._virtualDocumentSet[uri.toString()] = true;
 						const firstLineText = value.substr(0, 1 + value.search(/\r?\n/));
 						const mode = this._modeService.getOrCreateModeByFilenameOrFirstLine(uri.fsPath, firstLineText);