diff --git a/src/http/modules/perl/ngx_http_perl_module.c b/src/http/modules/perl/ngx_http_perl_module.c
index 6a8894cc3..f9a9a84c0 100644
--- a/src/http/modules/perl/ngx_http_perl_module.c
+++ b/src/http/modules/perl/ngx_http_perl_module.c
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ ngx_http_perl_ssi(ngx_http_request_t *r, ngx_http_ssi_ctx_t *ssi_ctx,
 
     args = &params[NGX_HTTP_PERL_SSI_ARG];
 
-    if (args) {
+    if (args[0]) {
 
         for (i = 0; args[i]; i++) { /* void */ }