diff --git a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
index 57d1c5c90..ac0647ca5 100644
--- a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
+++ b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ read_words (const char *filename, char ***ret_w)
 	w[n++] = estrdup (buf);
     }
     *ret_w = w;
+    if (n == 0)
+	errx(1, "%s is an empty file, no words to try", filename);
     return n;
 }