diff --git a/test/EncoderTest.php b/test/EncoderTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dfa5100
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/EncoderTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<?php
+
+class EncoderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
+    function testEncodeNull()
+    {
+        $this->assertEquals(0x00, \Zhandlersocket\Encoder::encode(null));
+    }
+    function testDecodeNull()
+    {
+        $this->assertEquals(null, \Zhandlersocket\Encoder::decode(chr(0x00)));
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/zhandlersocket/Encoder.zep b/zhandlersocket/Encoder.zep
index ba87465..8083445 100644
--- a/zhandlersocket/Encoder.zep
+++ b/zhandlersocket/Encoder.zep
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Encoder {
     }
 
     public static function decode(data) -> string|null {
-        if 0x00 === data {
+        if 0x00 === ord(data) {
             return null;
         }