diff --git a/libguile/sort.c b/libguile/sort.c
index ff33e1ee8..f40d62a7b 100644
--- a/libguile/sort.c
+++ b/libguile/sort.c
@@ -531,6 +531,9 @@ SCM_DEFINE (scm_stable_sort, "stable-sort", 2, 0, 0,
 	    "This is a stable sort.")
 #define FUNC_NAME s_scm_stable_sort
 {
+  if (SCM_NULL_OR_NIL_P (items))
+    return SCM_EOL;
+
   if (scm_is_pair (items))
     return scm_stable_sort_x (scm_list_copy (items), less);
   else if (scm_is_vector (items))