diff --git a/lib/saxes.js b/lib/saxes.js
index 1a5774d2..552ca064 100644
--- a/lib/saxes.js
+++ b/lib/saxes.js
@@ -995,8 +995,10 @@ class SaxesParser {
     switch (c) {
     case LESS:
       this.state = S_OPEN_WAKA;
+      // We could naively call closeText but in this state, it is not normal
+      // to have text be filled with any data.
       if (this.text.length !== 0) {
-        this.closeText();
+        throw new Error("no-empty text at start");
       }
       break;
     case EOC: