Index: boost/property_tree/detail/xml_parser_utils.hpp
===================================================================
--- boost/property_tree/detail/xml_parser_utils.hpp	(revision 62110)
+++ boost/property_tree/detail/xml_parser_utils.hpp	(working copy)
@@ -46,6 +46,11 @@
     {
         typedef typename std::basic_string<Ch> Str;
         Str r;
+
+        // If s is empty we are done.
+        if (s.empty()) 
+          return r;
+
         // To properly round-trip spaces and not uglify the XML beyond
         // recognition, we have to encode them IF the text contains only spaces.
         Str sp(1, Ch(' '));