diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 9a767f13afba11c7bca5c8463d1703dd99a9da0f..e59fd52480c1a4be8dde2b43bfee9b627b43904c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -155,6 +155,10 @@ CVS code -
   execute_command()
 	- Remove the marking of the file as modified, as do_insertfile()
 	  now handles that. (DLR)
+- utils.c:
+  digits()
+	- Tweak to remove the assumption that n is always positive,
+	  although it always is in this particular case. (DLR)
 - winio.c:
   parse_kbinput()
 	- Properly handle combined meta and escape sequences, so that
diff --git a/src/utils.c b/src/utils.c
index 9e4da45d24ded8de259b422f3ae88738db90bf79..6c16b9e4ab76697903846b40446e57fc9d2a87d7 100644
--- a/src/utils.c
+++ b/src/utils.c
@@ -35,8 +35,12 @@ int digits(size_t n)
 {
     int i;
 
-    for (i = 1; n >= 10; n /= 10, i++)
-	;
+    if (n == 0)
+	i = 1;
+    else {
+	for (i = 0; n != 0; n /= 10, i++)
+	    ;
+    }
 
     return i;
 }