diff --git a/lib/em-webfinger.rb b/lib/em-webfinger.rb
index b9eaf03bf7fa61e078553cbdeed248fd03f2af05..67b4dee5219b69b8310407de35b2a29c80c11c0d 100644
--- a/lib/em-webfinger.rb
+++ b/lib/em-webfinger.rb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ class EMWebfinger
     raise "Identifier is invalid" if(@account.strip.match(/\:\d+$/))
     # Raise an error if identifier is not a valid email (generous regexp)
     raise "Identifier is invalid" if !(@account=~ /^[a-zA-Z][\w\.-]*[a-zA-Z0-9]@[a-zA-Z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-zA-Z0-9]\.[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z\.]*[a-zA-Z]$/)
-  
+  end 
   def fetch
     raise 'you need to set a callback before calling fetch' if @callbacks.empty?
     person = Person.by_account_identifier(@account)
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ class EMWebfinger
   end
 
   private
-
   def get_xrd
     http = EventMachine::HttpRequest.new(xrd_url).get :timeout => TIMEOUT
-    http.callback { get_webfinger_profile(webfinger_profile_url(http.response)) }
+    http.callback { 
+      get_webfinger_profile(webfinger_profile_url(http.response)) }
     http.errback { process_callbacks "there was an error getting the xrd at #{xrd_url}" }
   end
 
@@ -64,6 +64,13 @@ class EMWebfinger
 
   ##helpers
   private
+
+  def check_nil_response(html)
+
+  end
+
+
+
   def webfinger_profile_url(xrd_response)
     doc = Nokogiri::XML::Document.parse(xrd_response)  
     swizzle doc.at('Link[rel=lrdd]').attribute('template').value
diff --git a/spec/lib/em-webfinger_spec.rb b/spec/lib/em-webfinger_spec.rb
index 3dab4b9726e0b84e9fd585c1c044644506687700..7ad6ad2dba90f1e9f814c0a357bf6f7ec4e6ce5d 100644
--- a/spec/lib/em-webfinger_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/em-webfinger_spec.rb
@@ -59,6 +59,18 @@ describe EMWebfinger do
 
       n.on_person{|person| puts "foo"}
       n.instance_variable_get(:@callbacks).count.should be 1
+
+      it 'should not blow up if the returned xrd is nil' do
+        http = FakeHttpRequest.new(:success)
+        http.callbacks = ['']
+        EventMachine::HttpRequest.should_receive(:new).and_return(http)
+        n = EMWebfinger.new("foo@example.com")
+
+        n.on_person{|person|
+          person = "sad"
+        }
+
+      end
     end
   end