diff --git a/tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/txt/CharsetMatch.java b/tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/txt/CharsetMatch.java
index 06ff848b23..c256cacda4 100644
--- a/tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/txt/CharsetMatch.java
+++ b/tika-parsers/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/parser/txt/CharsetMatch.java
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ public String getString(int maxLength) throws java.io.IOException {
             int max = maxLength < 0 ? Integer.MAX_VALUE : maxLength;
             int bytesRead = 0;
 
-            while ((bytesRead = reader.read(buffer, 0, Math.min(max, 1024))) >= 0) {
+            while ((bytesRead = reader.read(buffer, 0, Math.min(max, 1024))) > 0) {
                 sb.append(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
                 max -= bytesRead;
             }