diff --git a/ext/containers/rbtree_map/rbtree.c b/ext/containers/rbtree_map/rbtree.c
index 24cf1e4d..bd609a86 100644
--- a/ext/containers/rbtree_map/rbtree.c
+++ b/ext/containers/rbtree_map/rbtree.c
@@ -412,8 +412,9 @@ static VALUE rbtree_max_key(VALUE self) {
 static VALUE rbtree_delete(VALUE self, VALUE key) {
 	VALUE deleted_value;
 	rbtree *tree = get_tree_from_self(self);
-	if(!tree->root)
+	if(get(tree, tree->root, key) == Qnil) {
 		return Qnil;
+	}
 	
 	tree->root = delete(tree, tree->root, key, &deleted_value);
 	if(tree->root)
diff --git a/lib/containers/rb_tree_map.rb b/lib/containers/rb_tree_map.rb
index c7bf63c8..9386bc21 100644
--- a/lib/containers/rb_tree_map.rb
+++ b/lib/containers/rb_tree_map.rb
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ def max_key
   #   map.min_key #=> "GA"
   def delete(key)
     result = nil
-    if @root
+    if @root && get(key)
       @root, result = delete_recursive(@root, key)
       @root.color = :black if @root
     end
diff --git a/spec/rb_tree_map_spec.rb b/spec/rb_tree_map_spec.rb
index 32040aaa..63ba6990 100644
--- a/spec/rb_tree_map_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/rb_tree_map_spec.rb
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 shared_examples "non-empty rbtree" do
   before(:each) do
     @num_items = 1000
+    @non_existing_element = @num_items+1
     @random_array = Array.new(@num_items) { rand(@num_items) }
     @random_array.each { |x| @tree[x] = x }
   end
@@ -51,7 +52,7 @@
   end
 
   it "should not #has_key? keys it doesn't have" do
-    expect(@tree.has_key?(100000)).to be false
+    expect(@tree.has_key?(@non_existing_element)).to be false
   end
 
   it "should #has_key? keys it does have" do
@@ -88,6 +89,10 @@
       counter += 1
     end
   end
+
+  it "should allow deleting non-existent keys" do
+    expect(@tree.delete(@non_existing_element)).to be_nil
+  end
 end
 
 describe "empty rbtreemap" do