diff --git a/reader_test.go b/reader_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..971b3ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/reader_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package validator
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"compress/flate"
+	"io"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+// flateIt takes and input string, compresses it using flate, and returns a flate.Reader() of the compressed content
+func flateIt(t *testing.T, input string) io.Reader {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	var zipped bytes.Buffer
+	w, err := flate.NewWriter(&zipped, flate.DefaultCompression)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	_, err = w.Write([]byte(input))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	err = w.Close()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	return flate.NewReader(&zipped)
+}
+
+func TestValidateZippedReader(t *testing.T) {
+	// wrap an innocuous "<foo></foo>" XML payload in a flate.Reader :
+	zipped := flateIt(t, `<foo></foo>`)
+
+	// Validate should not trigger an error on that Reader :
+	err := Validate(zipped)
+	assert.NoError(t, err, "Should not error on a valid XML document")
+
+	// an invalid document should still error :
+	zipped = flateIt(t, `<x::Root/>`)
+
+	err = Validate(zipped)
+	assert.Error(t, err, "Should error on an invalid XML document")
+}
diff --git a/validator.go b/validator.go
index 6931b93..523659d 100644
--- a/validator.go
+++ b/validator.go
@@ -121,9 +121,20 @@ type byteReader struct {
 }
 
 func (r *byteReader) ReadByte() (byte, error) {
-	p := make([]byte, 1)
-	_, err := r.r.Read(p)
-	return p[0], err
+	var p [1]byte
+	n, err := r.r.Read(p[:])
+
+	// The doc for the io.ByteReader interface states:
+	//   If ReadByte returns an error, no input byte was consumed, and the returned byte value is undefined.
+	// So if a byte is actually extracted from the reader, and we want to return it, we mustn't return the error.
+	if n > 0 {
+		// this byteReader is only used in the context of the Validate() function,
+		// we deliberately choose to completely ignore the error in this case.
+		// return the byte extracted from the reader
+		return p[0], nil
+	}
+
+	return 0, err
 }
 
 func (r *byteReader) Read(p []byte) (int, error) {