diff --git a/lib/cookie.js b/lib/cookie.js
index ce5ab425..edf19bbe 100644
--- a/lib/cookie.js
+++ b/lib/cookie.js
@@ -1100,8 +1100,13 @@ class CookieJar {
       cb = options;
       options = {};
     }
+
     validators.validate(validators.isFunction(cb), cb);
 
+    if(!validators.isNonEmptyString(cookie) && !validators.isObject(cookie) && ( cookie instanceof String && cookie.length == 0)) {
+      return cb(null);
+    }
+
     const host = canonicalDomain(context.hostname);
     const loose = options.loose || this.enableLooseMode;
 
diff --git a/test/cookie_jar_test.js b/test/cookie_jar_test.js
index 3155a05c..02e2f8a0 100644
--- a/test/cookie_jar_test.js
+++ b/test/cookie_jar_test.js
@@ -699,4 +699,21 @@ vows
       }
     }
   })
+  .addBatch({
+    "Issue #197 - CookieJar().setCookie crashes when empty cookie is passed": {
+      "with missing parameters": {
+        topic: function() {
+          const jar = new tough.CookieJar();
+          jar.setCookie(
+            '',
+            "https://google.com",
+            this.callback
+          );
+        },
+        "results in a error being returned because of missing parameters": function(err, cookies) {
+          assert(cookies == undefined);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  })
   .export(module);