diff --git a/common.c b/common.c
index a8a4afc..629b31b 100644
--- a/common.c
+++ b/common.c
@@ -969,9 +969,11 @@ config_tokenizer_error (struct config_tokenizer *self,
 	if (self->report_line)
 		error_set (e, "near line %u, column %u: %s",
 			self->line + 1, self->column + 1, description.str);
-	else
+	else if (self->len)
 		error_set (e, "near character %u: %s",
 			self->column + 1, description.str);
+	else
+		error_set (e, "near end: %s", description.str);
 
 	str_free (&description);
 }