diff --git a/orm/encoding/encodeutil/util.go b/orm/encoding/encodeutil/util.go
index 0d84093803..fb89bb81e2 100644
--- a/orm/encoding/encodeutil/util.go
+++ b/orm/encoding/encodeutil/util.go
@@ -13,13 +13,10 @@ import (
 // This is used for efficient logical decoding of keys.
 func SkipPrefix(r *bytes.Reader, prefix []byte) error {
 	n := len(prefix)
-	if n > 0 {
-		// we skip checking the prefix for performance reasons because we assume
-		// that it was checked by the caller
-		_, err := r.Seek(int64(n), io.SeekCurrent)
-		return err
-	}
-	return nil
+	// we skip checking the prefix for performance reasons because we assume
+	// that it was checked by the caller
+	_, err := r.Seek(int64(n), io.SeekCurrent)
+	return err
 }
 
 // AppendVarUInt32 creates a new key prefix, by encoding and appending a