diff --git a/src/main/java/org/scijava/io/handle/BytesHandle.java b/src/main/java/org/scijava/io/handle/BytesHandle.java
index 7eb52dbd5..9ffa71431 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/scijava/io/handle/BytesHandle.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/scijava/io/handle/BytesHandle.java
@@ -87,9 +87,13 @@ public void setLength(final long length) throws IOException {
 
 	@Override
 	public int read(final byte[] b, final int off, int len) throws IOException {
+		if(len == 0) return 0;
 		if (offset + len > length()) {
 			len = (int) (length() - offset);
 		}
+		if(len == 0) { // EOF
+			return -1;
+		}
 		bytes().getBytes(offset, b, off, len);
 		offset += len;
 		return len;