diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 4e84c37..e8d6043 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # Please keep the list sorted.
 
 adiabatic <adiabatic@users.noreply.github.com>
+Florian D. Loch <me@fdlo.ch>
 Google LLC (https://opensource.google.com)
 jamesgroat <james@groat.com>
 Joshua Carp <jm.carp@gmail.com>
diff --git a/csrf.go b/csrf.go
index f21e0a2..21223d4 100644
--- a/csrf.go
+++ b/csrf.go
@@ -274,16 +274,22 @@ func (cs *csrf) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 			}
 		}
 
-		// If the token returned from the session store is nil for non-idempotent
-		// ("unsafe") methods, call the error handler.
-		if realToken == nil {
+		// Retrieve the combined token (pad + masked) token...
+		maskedToken, err := cs.requestToken(r)
+		if err != nil {
+			r = envError(r, ErrBadToken)
+			cs.opts.ErrorHandler.ServeHTTP(w, r)
+			return
+		}
+
+		if maskedToken == nil {
 			r = envError(r, ErrNoToken)
 			cs.opts.ErrorHandler.ServeHTTP(w, r)
 			return
 		}
 
-		// Retrieve the combined token (pad + masked) token and unmask it.
-		requestToken := unmask(cs.requestToken(r))
+		// ... and unmask it.
+		requestToken := unmask(maskedToken)
 
 		// Compare the request token against the real token
 		if !compareTokens(requestToken, realToken) {
diff --git a/csrf_test.go b/csrf_test.go
index 0841d5f..a97fb10 100644
--- a/csrf_test.go
+++ b/csrf_test.go
@@ -374,6 +374,48 @@ func TestWithReferer(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// Requests without a token should fail with ErrNoToken.
+func TestNoTokenProvided(t *testing.T) {
+	var finalErr error
+
+	s := http.NewServeMux()
+	p := Protect(testKey, ErrorHandler(http.HandlerFunc(func(rw http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		finalErr = FailureReason(r)
+	})))(s)
+
+	var token string
+	s.Handle("/", http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		token = Token(r)
+	}))
+
+	// Obtain a CSRF cookie via a GET request.
+	r, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "http://www.gorillatoolkit.org/", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	rr := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	p.ServeHTTP(rr, r)
+
+	// POST the token back in the header.
+	r, err = http.NewRequest("POST", "http://www.gorillatoolkit.org/", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	setCookie(rr, r)
+	// By accident we use the wrong header name for the token...
+	r.Header.Set("X-CSRF-nekot", token)
+	r.Header.Set("Referer", "http://www.gorillatoolkit.org/")
+
+	rr = httptest.NewRecorder()
+	p.ServeHTTP(rr, r)
+
+	if finalErr != nil && finalErr != ErrNoToken {
+		t.Fatalf("middleware failed to return correct error: got '%v' want '%v'", finalErr, ErrNoToken)
+	}
+}
+
 func setCookie(rr *httptest.ResponseRecorder, r *http.Request) {
 	r.Header.Set("Cookie", rr.Header().Get("Set-Cookie"))
 }
diff --git a/helpers.go b/helpers.go
index 3dacfd2..c19dc47 100644
--- a/helpers.go
+++ b/helpers.go
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ func unmask(issued []byte) []byte {
 
 // requestToken returns the issued token (pad + masked token) from the HTTP POST
 // body or HTTP header. It will return nil if the token fails to decode.
-func (cs *csrf) requestToken(r *http.Request) []byte {
+func (cs *csrf) requestToken(r *http.Request) ([]byte, error) {
 	// 1. Check the HTTP header first.
 	issued := r.Header.Get(cs.opts.RequestHeader)
 
@@ -123,14 +123,19 @@ func (cs *csrf) requestToken(r *http.Request) []byte {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Return nil (equivalent to empty byte slice) if no token was found
+	if issued == "" {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+
 	// Decode the "issued" (pad + masked) token sent in the request. Return a
 	// nil byte slice on a decoding error (this will fail upstream).
 	decoded, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(issued)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil
+		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	return decoded
+	return decoded, nil
 }
 
 // generateRandomBytes returns securely generated random bytes.