diff --git a/lib/oga.rb b/lib/oga.rb
index b53f8da..d671571 100644
--- a/lib/oga.rb
+++ b/lib/oga.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ require 'thread'
 require_relative 'oga/version'
 require_relative 'oga/oga'
 require_relative 'oga/lru'
+require_relative 'oga/entity_decoder'
 
 # Load these first so that the native extensions don't have to define the
 # Oga::XML namespace.
diff --git a/lib/oga/entity_decoder.rb b/lib/oga/entity_decoder.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24eaa4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/oga/entity_decoder.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+module Oga
+  module EntityDecoder
+    ##
+    # @see [decode]
+    #
+    def self.try_decode(input, html = false)
+      return input ? decode(input, html) : nil
+    end
+
+    ##
+    # @param [String] input
+    # @param [TrueClass|FalseClass] html
+    # @return [String]
+    #
+    def self.decode(input, html = false)
+      decoder = html ? HTML::Entities : XML::Entities
+
+      return decoder.decode(input)
+    end
+  end # EntityDecoder
+end # Oga
diff --git a/lib/oga/xml/text.rb b/lib/oga/xml/text.rb
index 16711b0..6d8115c 100644
--- a/lib/oga/xml/text.rb
+++ b/lib/oga/xml/text.rb
@@ -27,8 +27,7 @@ module Oga
       #
       def text
         unless @decoded
-          decoder  = html? ? HTML::Entities : Entities
-          @text    = decoder.decode(@text)
+          @text    = EntityDecoder.try_decode(@text, html?)
           @decoded = true
         end
 
diff --git a/spec/oga/entity_decoder_spec.rb b/spec/oga/entity_decoder_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ba1be2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/oga/entity_decoder_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe Oga::EntityDecoder do
+  describe 'try_decode' do
+    it 'returns nil if the input is also nil' do
+      described_class.try_decode(nil).should be_nil
+    end
+
+    it 'decodes XML entities' do
+      described_class.try_decode('<')
+        .should == Oga::XML::Entities::DECODE_MAPPING['<']
+    end
+
+    it 'decodes HTML entities' do
+      described_class.try_decode('©', true)
+        .should == Oga::HTML::Entities::DECODE_MAPPING['©']
+    end
+  end
+
+  describe 'decode' do
+    it 'decodes XML entities' do
+      described_class.decode('<')
+        .should == Oga::XML::Entities::DECODE_MAPPING['<']
+    end
+
+    it 'decodes HTML entities' do
+      described_class.decode('©', true)
+        .should == Oga::HTML::Entities::DECODE_MAPPING['©']
+    end
+  end
+end