diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoader.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoader.php
index cf6dd92dca..16212833dc 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoader.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoader.php
@@ -46,13 +46,7 @@ class YamlFileLoader extends FileLoader
                 $this->yamlParser = new YamlParser();
             }
 
-            // This method may throw an exception. Do not modify the class'
-            // state before it completes
-            if (false === ($classes = $this->parseFile($this->file))) {
-                return false;
-            }
-
-            $this->classes = $classes;
+            $this->classes = $this->parseFile($this->file);
 
             if (isset($this->classes['namespaces'])) {
                 foreach ($this->classes['namespaces'] as $alias => $namespace) {
@@ -111,7 +105,7 @@ class YamlFileLoader extends FileLoader
      *
      * @param string $path The path of the YAML file
      *
-     * @return array|null The class descriptions or null, if the file was empty
+     * @return array The class descriptions
      *
      * @throws \InvalidArgumentException If the file could not be loaded or did
      *                                   not contain a YAML array
@@ -126,7 +120,7 @@ class YamlFileLoader extends FileLoader
 
         // empty file
         if (null === $classes) {
-            return;
+            return array();
         }
 
         // not an array
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Tests/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoaderTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Tests/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoaderTest.php
index 2ca64122aa..15f02139ae 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Tests/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoaderTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Validator/Tests/Mapping/Loader/YamlFileLoaderTest.php
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ class YamlFileLoaderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
         $metadata = new ClassMetadata('Symfony\Component\Validator\Tests\Fixtures\Entity');
 
         $this->assertFalse($loader->loadClassMetadata($metadata));
+
+        $r = new \ReflectionProperty($loader, 'classes');
+        $r->setAccessible(true);
+        $this->assertSame(array(), $r->getValue($loader));
     }
 
     /**