diff --git a/httpresponse.class.php b/httpresponse.class.php
index 9686f86..5dc02cf 100644
--- a/httpresponse.class.php
+++ b/httpresponse.class.php
@@ -55,13 +55,14 @@ function __construct($status_code = null) {
   public function __get($k){
     return $this->$k;
   }
+  
   public function __set($k, $v){
     if($k=='body' AND $this->content_is_gzip_encoded()){
-      //strip the gzip header
-      if(ord($v[0]) == 0x1f && ord($v[1]) == 0x8b)
-      {
-            $v = substr($v,10);
-            $v = gzinflate($v);
+      //strip the gzip header, explicitly suppressing errors
+	  if(ord(@$v[0]) == 0x1f && ord(@$v[1]) == 0x8b)
+	  {
+	    $v = substr($v,10);
+	    $v = gzinflate($v);
       }
     }
     $this->$k=$v;
diff --git a/store.class.php b/store.class.php
index eaa31a9..02f06e3 100644
--- a/store.class.php
+++ b/store.class.php
@@ -297,5 +297,4 @@ function mirror_from_url($url, $rdf_content=false)
   }
 
 }
-?>
-
+?>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/httpresponse.test.php b/tests/httpresponse.test.php
index 9bc5126..e258a60 100644
--- a/tests/httpresponse.test.php
+++ b/tests/httpresponse.test.php
@@ -6,15 +6,31 @@
 
 class HttpResponseTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
 
+	private $old_error_reporting = 0;
+	
+	// switch off error suppression while we test test_set_body_empty
+	// because the error reporting in an end-user environment can't be guaranteed
+	// after the tests, restore the error reporting
+	
+	function setUp() {
+		$this->old_error_reporting = error_reporting();	
+	  	error_reporting(E_ALL);
+	}
+	
+	function tearDown() {
+	  	error_reporting($this->old_error_reporting);	
+	}
+	
+  function test_set_body_with_empty_string(){
 
-  function test_get_content_type(){
+    $response = new HttpResponse(200);
+    
+    $headers = array();
+    $headers['content-encoding'] = 'gzip';
+    $response->headers = $headers;
+    $response->body = "";
 
-    $response = new HttpResponse('200');
-    $response->headers = array('content-type'=> 'text/html');
-    $this->assertEquals('text/html', $response->get_content_type(), 'Content type should be text/html');
-    $response->headers = array('Content-Type'=> 'text/xml');
-    $this->assertEquals('text/xml', $response->get_content_type(), 'Content type should be text/xml');
-  
+    $this->assertTrue($response->is_success(), 'Should have handled empty body without causing error');
   }
 }
 ?>
diff --git a/tests/runtests.php b/tests/runtests.php
index 82946ff..f20295e 100644
--- a/tests/runtests.php
+++ b/tests/runtests.php
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'fieldpredicatemap.test.php';
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'valuepool.test.php';
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'httprequest.test.php';
+require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'httpresponse.test.php';
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'credentials.test.php';
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'privategraph.test.php';
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'contentbox.test.php';
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@
 require_once MORIARTY_TEST_DIR . 'datatableresult.test.php';
 
 error_reporting(E_ALL && ~E_STRICT);
+
 function exceptions_error_handler($severity, $message, $filename, $lineno) {
   if (error_reporting() == 0) {
     return;
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ public static function suite()
         $suite->addTestSuite('CredentialsTest');
         $suite->addTestSuite('ValuePoolTest');
         $suite->addTestSuite('HttpRequestTest');
+        $suite->addTestSuite('HttpResponseTest');
         $suite->addTestSuite('PrivateGraphTest');
         $suite->addTestSuite('MetaboxTest');
         $suite->addTestSuite('ContentboxTest');