diff --git a/util/src/rlp/rlpstream.rs b/util/src/rlp/rlpstream.rs
index b6b500a74..492d188f8 100644
--- a/util/src/rlp/rlpstream.rs
+++ b/util/src/rlp/rlpstream.rs
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ impl Stream for RlpStream {
 				// we may finish, if the appended list len is equal 0
 				self.encoder.bytes.push(0xc0u8);
 				self.note_appended(1);
+				self.finished_list = true;
 			},
 			_ => {
 				let position = self.encoder.bytes.len();
diff --git a/util/src/rlp/tests.rs b/util/src/rlp/tests.rs
index 3b00676f8..faadbe7d2 100644
--- a/util/src/rlp/tests.rs
+++ b/util/src/rlp/tests.rs
@@ -405,3 +405,11 @@ fn test_rlp_2bytes_data_length_check()
 	assert_eq!(Err(DecoderError::RlpInconsistentLengthAndData), as_val);
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_rlp_nested_empty_list_encode() {
+	let mut stream = RlpStream::new_list(2);
+	stream.append(&(Vec::new() as Vec<u32>));
+	stream.append(&40u32);
+	assert_eq!(stream.drain()[..], [0xc2u8, 0xc0u8, 40u8][..]);
+}
+