diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwgui/formatting.cpp b/apps/openmw/mwgui/formatting.cpp
index 7de4950eee..d838ae8af8 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwgui/formatting.cpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwgui/formatting.cpp
@@ -202,10 +202,8 @@ namespace MWGui
                     // hack: prevent newlines at the end of the book possibly creating unnecessary pages
                     if (event == BookTextParser::Event_EOF)
                     {
-                        while (plainText[plainText.size()-1] == '\n')
-                        {
+                        while (plainText.size() && plainText[plainText.size()-1] == '\n')
                             plainText.erase(plainText.end()-1);
-                        }
                     }
 #endif