diff --git a/keyvi/include/keyvi/dictionary/fsa/automata.h b/keyvi/include/keyvi/dictionary/fsa/automata.h
index 79c494b96..7a4a94b28 100644
--- a/keyvi/include/keyvi/dictionary/fsa/automata.h
+++ b/keyvi/include/keyvi/dictionary/fsa/automata.h
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ class Automata final {
    * @return index of root state.
    */
   uint64_t GetStartState() const {
-    return dictionary_properties_->GetNumberOfStates() != 0 ? dictionary_properties_->GetStartState() : 0;
+    return dictionary_properties_->GetNumberOfKeys() != 0 ? dictionary_properties_->GetStartState() : 0;
   }
 
   uint64_t GetNumberOfKeys() const { return dictionary_properties_->GetNumberOfKeys(); }
diff --git a/rust/test_data/empty-key-dict.kv b/rust/test_data/empty-key-dict.kv
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1c326ac33
Binary files /dev/null and b/rust/test_data/empty-key-dict.kv differ
diff --git a/rust/tests/tests.rs b/rust/tests/tests.rs
index 1c96a3c8e..9e3e95a8e 100644
--- a/rust/tests/tests.rs
+++ b/rust/tests/tests.rs
@@ -194,6 +194,15 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn get_all_items_empty() {
+        // uses dictionary created using keyvi < 0.7.2, see gh#368
+        let dict = dictionary::Dictionary::new("test_data/empty-key-dict.kv").unwrap();
+
+        let all_items: Vec<_> = dict.get_all_items().collect();
+        assert!(all_items.is_empty());
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn multi_word_completions() {
         let mut values = vec![