diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index a238214a..8dadf083 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -739,7 +739,7 @@ class Response(object):
                     raise RuntimeError(
                         'The content for this response was already consumed')
 
-                self._content = bytes().join(self.iter_content()) or None
+                self._content = bytes().join(self.iter_content()) or bytes()
                 # print repr(self._content)
             except AttributeError:
                 self._content = None
diff --git a/tests/test_requests.py b/tests/test_requests.py
index 37212eb6..c06f88ad 100755
--- a/tests/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/test_requests.py
@@ -795,5 +795,11 @@ class RequestsTestSuite(TestSetup, unittest.TestCase):
         s.get(httpbin('redirect', '4'))
 
 
+    def test_empty_response(self):
+        r = requests.get(httpbin('status', '404'))
+        r.text
+
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()