diff --git a/src/fileio.jl b/src/fileio.jl
index 42d44c6..67c4879 100644
--- a/src/fileio.jl
+++ b/src/fileio.jl
@@ -5,10 +5,13 @@ cfopen(filename::String, mode::String) = ccall(:fopen,
                                                (Cstring, Cstring),
                                                filename, mode)
                                                 
-cfclose(fp::Ptr{Cvoid}) = ccall(:fclose,
-                                Cint,
-                                (Ptr{Cvoid},),
-                                fp)
+function cfclose(fp::Ptr{Cvoid}) 
+    (fp == C_NULL) && return
+    ccall(:fclose,
+          Cint,
+          (Ptr{Cvoid},),
+          fp)
+end
 
 function cfopen(f::Function, iostream::IOStream, mode::String="r")
     newfd = Libc.dup(RawFD(fd(iostream)))
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index ebac209..4d0b6ed 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -116,6 +116,10 @@ Si        13.00000000      14.00000000      $(frame+1).00000000          0
             @test all(seq1 .≈ seq2)
         end
 
+        @testset "missingfile" begin
+            @test_throws ErrorException("file bla.extxyz cannot be opened for reading") read_frame("bla.extxyz")
+        end
+
         @testset "AtomsBase" begin
             seq1 = ExtXYZ.load(infile)
             ExtXYZ.save(outfile, seq1)