diff --git a/src/main/java/redis/clients/util/SafeEncoder.java b/src/main/java/redis/clients/util/SafeEncoder.java
index c657756..8e88c40 100644
--- a/src/main/java/redis/clients/util/SafeEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/redis/clients/util/SafeEncoder.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package redis.clients.util;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 
 import redis.clients.jedis.Protocol;
+import redis.clients.jedis.exceptions.JedisDataException;
 import redis.clients.jedis.exceptions.JedisException;
 
 /**
@@ -12,6 +13,10 @@ import redis.clients.jedis.exceptions.JedisException;
 public class SafeEncoder {
     public static byte[] encode(final String str) {
         try {
+            if (str == null) {
+                throw new JedisDataException(
+                        "value sent to redis cannot be null");
+            }
             return str.getBytes(Protocol.CHARSET);
         } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
             throw new JedisException(e);
diff --git a/src/test/java/redis/clients/jedis/tests/JedisTest.java b/src/test/java/redis/clients/jedis/tests/JedisTest.java
index d1272d2..a34ef3d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/redis/clients/jedis/tests/JedisTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/redis/clients/jedis/tests/JedisTest.java
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import redis.clients.jedis.Jedis;
 import redis.clients.jedis.JedisShardInfo;
 import redis.clients.jedis.Protocol;
 import redis.clients.jedis.exceptions.JedisConnectionException;
+import redis.clients.jedis.exceptions.JedisDataException;
 import redis.clients.jedis.tests.commands.JedisCommandTestBase;
 import redis.clients.util.SafeEncoder;
 
@@ -53,4 +54,9 @@ public class JedisTest extends JedisCommandTestBase {
         Thread.sleep(20000);
         jedis.hmget("foobar", "foo");
     }
+
+    @Test(expected = JedisDataException.class)
+    public void failWhenSendingNullValues() {
+        jedis.set("foo", null);
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file