diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8f0f13318..2d2fca47d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2004-04-01  Mike Kestner  <mkestner@ximian.com>
+
+	* glib/Value.cs : NULL check for g_value_get_string Thanks to Jeroen
+	Zwartepoorte for the bug report with patch [fixes #54979].
+
 2004-03-31  Miguel de Icaza  <miguel@ximian.com>
 
 	* configure.in: If monodoc is not found, then turn off
diff --git a/glib/Value.cs b/glib/Value.cs
index d0db7be73..848f9c8f3 100755
--- a/glib/Value.cs
+++ b/glib/Value.cs
@@ -589,7 +589,8 @@ namespace GLib {
 		{
 			// FIXME: Insert an appropriate exception here if
 			// _val.type indicates an error.
-			return Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi (g_value_get_string (val._val));
+			IntPtr str = g_value_get_string (val._val);
+			return str == IntPtr.Zero ? null : Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi (str);
 		}
 
 		[DllImport("libgobject-2.0-0.dll")]