diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 006b5c281cc35553e7fd4d894c937523e1e0ce31..0d32c040b8d60424f29a40220a18ab1d251bbff1 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 2016-01-15  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* src/winio.c (set_modified): Plug another memory leak.
+	* src/files.c (open_file): Return the fantastic file descriptor
+	when opening a non-existent file for reading succeeds.
 
 2016-01-15  Mike Frysinger  <vapier@gentoo.org>
 	* src/files.c (open_file): Free the full filename in all cases.
diff --git a/src/files.c b/src/files.c
index ab0b2cccd9230a093980e1d71224349117336e36..1b89c0e998ef9e73ee41e5eb5dac5fa370bb4f43 100644
--- a/src/files.c
+++ b/src/files.c
@@ -933,7 +933,7 @@ int open_file(const char *filename, bool newfie, bool quiet, FILE **f)
 	if ((fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY)) != -1) {
 	    if (!quiet)
 		statusbar(_("Reading File"));
-	    return 0;
+	    return fd;
 	}
 
 	if (newfie) {