diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 26efe7edd6..a54e479859 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-Sat Jun 21 21:27:18 2003  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu.nokada@softhome.net>
+Sat Jun 21 23:15:08 2003  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
 
-	* object.c (rb_to_id): use rb_str_intern() instead of rb_intern()
-	  directly, for sanity check.
+	* object.c (str_to_id): check for empty string before intern. 
+	  [ruby-talk:74006]
 
 Sat Jun 21 13:56:09 2003  Takaaki Uematsu  <uema2x@jcom.home.ne.jp>
 
diff --git a/object.c b/object.c
index 1e7c5c1d45..33502dbc3b 100644
--- a/object.c
+++ b/object.c
@@ -779,6 +779,16 @@ rb_class_superclass(klass)
     return super;
 }
 
+static ID
+str_to_id(str)
+    VALUE str;
+{
+    if (!RSTRING(str)->ptr || RSTRING(str)->len == 0) {
+	rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "empty symbol string");
+    }
+    return rb_intern(RSTRING(str)->ptr);
+}
+
 ID
 rb_to_id(name)
     VALUE name;
@@ -788,7 +798,7 @@ rb_to_id(name)
 
     switch (TYPE(name)) {
       case T_STRING:
-	return rb_str_intern(name);
+	return str_to_id(name);
       case T_FIXNUM:
 	rb_warn("do not use Fixnums as Symbols");
 	id = FIX2LONG(name);
@@ -802,7 +812,7 @@ rb_to_id(name)
       default:
 	tmp = rb_check_string_type(name);
 	if (!NIL_P(tmp)) {
-	    return rb_str_intern(tmp);
+	    return str_to_id(tmp);
 	}
 	rb_raise(rb_eTypeError, "%s is not a symbol", RSTRING(rb_inspect(name))->ptr);
     }