diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ClassConstants.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ClassConstants.java
index 960f6b9ce..297edab8e 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ClassConstants.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ClassConstants.java
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ public final class ClassConstants
             }
         } else {
             final String clazz = readFully();
-            if (clazz == null) {
+            if (clazz == null && clazz.length() != 0) {
                 ch = -1;
             } else {
                 final byte[] bytes = clazz.getBytes("ISO-8859-1");
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ExpandProperties.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ExpandProperties.java
index ebe9587d7..190ff7001 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ExpandProperties.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/ExpandProperties.java
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ public final class ExpandProperties
             }
         } else {
             queuedData = readFully();
-            if (queuedData == null) {
+            if (queuedData.length() == 0) {
                 ch = -1;
             } else {
                 Project project = getProject();
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
index 94ce2ab43..dfd98b45a 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public class LoadProperties extends Task {
 
             String text = crh.readFully(instream);
 
-            if (text != null) {
+            if (text != null && text.length() != 0) {
                 if (!text.endsWith("\n")) {
                     text = text + "\n";
                 }