diff --git a/node/store.go b/node/store.go
index 5e33f66c2..33217d562 100644
--- a/node/store.go
+++ b/node/store.go
@@ -374,14 +374,14 @@ func (s *Store) DeleteKeys(ctx context.Context, keys *[][]byte) error {
 //
 // EncodeChunks implements encoding format "001"
 func EncodeChunks(chunks [][]byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	if len(chunks) == 0 {
+		return []byte{}, nil
+	}
 	totalSize := 0
 	for _, chunk := range chunks {
 		totalSize += len(chunk)
 	}
 	result := make([]byte, totalSize+8)
-	if len(chunks) == 0 {
-		return result, nil
-	}
 	buf := result
 	chunkSize := uint64(len(chunks[0])) | (1 << 61)
 	binary.LittleEndian.PutUint64(buf, chunkSize)
diff --git a/node/store_test.go b/node/store_test.go
index 676944c85..2f91ff12d 100644
--- a/node/store_test.go
+++ b/node/store_test.go
@@ -227,20 +227,22 @@ func TestDecodeCompactChunks(t *testing.T) {
 	_, err = node.DecodeChunks(invalid)
 	assert.EqualError(t, err, "unrecognized chunks encoding format")
 	data := make([]byte, 0, 9)
+	data = append(data, byte(2))
 	for i := 0; i < 6; i++ {
 		data = append(data, byte(0))
 	}
-	data = append(data, byte(2))
 	data = append(data, byte(0b00100000))
-	data = append(data, byte(0))
+	data = append(data, byte(5))
 	_, err = node.DecodeChunks(data)
 	assert.EqualError(t, err, "invalid compact data to decode")
-	data = append(data, byte(0))
+	data = append(data, byte(6))
+	data = append(data, byte(7))
+	data = append(data, byte(8))
 	chunks, err := node.DecodeChunks(data)
 	assert.Nil(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, 2, len(chunks))
-	assert.Equal(t, byte(0), chunks[0])
-	assert.Equal(t, byte(1), chunks[1])
+	assert.Equal(t, []byte{byte(5), byte(6)}, chunks[0])
+	assert.Equal(t, []byte{byte(7), byte(8)}, chunks[1])
 }
 
 func TestStoringBlob(t *testing.T) {