diff --git a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/parser.py b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/parser.py
index 6f3f344db..9f1a08b3b 100644
--- a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/parser.py
+++ b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/parser.py
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ class NginxParser(object):
             srv = servers[filename]  # workaround undefined loop var in lambdas
 
             # Find all the server blocks
-            _do_for_subarray(tree, lambda x: x[0] == ['server'],
+            _do_for_subarray(tree, lambda x: len(x) >= 2 and x[0] == ['server'],
                              lambda x, y: srv.append((x[1], y)))
 
             # Find 'include' statements in server blocks and append their trees
diff --git a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/parser_test.py b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/parser_test.py
index 9c2b8656e..8a8bd0ff1 100644
--- a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/parser_test.py
+++ b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/parser_test.py
@@ -125,13 +125,13 @@ class NginxParserTest(util.NginxTest):
                                  False, True,
                                  set(['localhost',
                                       r'~^(www\.)?(example|bar)\.']),
-                                 [], [9, 1, 9])
+                                 [], [10, 1, 9])
         vhost2 = obj.VirtualHost(nparser.abs_path('nginx.conf'),
                                  [obj.Addr('somename', '8080', False, False),
                                   obj.Addr('', '8000', False, False)],
                                  False, True,
                                  set(['somename', 'another.alias', 'alias']),
-                                 [], [9, 1, 12])
+                                 [], [10, 1, 12])
         vhost3 = obj.VirtualHost(nparser.abs_path('sites-enabled/example.com'),
                                  [obj.Addr('69.50.225.155', '9000',
                                            False, False),
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ class NginxParserTest(util.NginxTest):
                                      None, None, None,
                                      set(['localhost',
                                            r'~^(www\.)?(example|bar)\.']),
-                                     None, [9, 1, 9])
+                                     None, [10, 1, 9])
         nparser.add_server_directives(mock_vhost,
                                       [['foo', 'bar'], ['\n ', 'ssl_certificate', ' ',
                                                         '/etc/ssl/cert.pem']],
diff --git a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/testdata/etc_nginx/nginx.conf b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/testdata/etc_nginx/nginx.conf
index 0af503e6b..ccce4dc1b 100644
--- a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/testdata/etc_nginx/nginx.conf
+++ b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/tests/testdata/etc_nginx/nginx.conf
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ events {
     worker_connections  1024;
 }
 
+empty {
+}
+
 include foo.conf;
 
 http {