diff --git a/testchar.c b/testchar.c
index d1271fcc..a3f2e4f4 100644
--- a/testchar.c
+++ b/testchar.c
@@ -672,7 +672,7 @@ testUserEncoding(void) {
     int totalSize = startSize + textSize + endSize;
     int k = 0;
     int i;
-    int ret = 0;
+    int ret = 1;
 
     buf = xmlMalloc(2 * totalSize);
     for (i = 0; start[i] != 0; i++) {
@@ -693,16 +693,17 @@ testUserEncoding(void) {
         fprintf(stderr, "failed to parse document\n");
         goto error;
     }
-    text = doc->children->children->content;
 
+    text = doc->children->children->content;
     for (i = 0; i < textSize; i++) {
         if (text[i] != 'x') {
             fprintf(stderr, "text node has wrong content at offset %d\n", k);
-            ret = 1;
             goto error;
         }
     }
 
+    ret = 0;
+
 error:
     xmlFreeDoc(doc);
     xmlFree(buf);