diff --git a/ixwebsocket/IXSelectInterruptPipe.cpp b/ixwebsocket/IXSelectInterruptPipe.cpp
index 75c42f27..26a6d4c6 100644
--- a/ixwebsocket/IXSelectInterruptPipe.cpp
+++ b/ixwebsocket/IXSelectInterruptPipe.cpp
@@ -134,6 +134,9 @@ namespace ix
 
         int fd = _fildes[kPipeReadIndex];
 
+        // A weird state has been reached (consider reporting to the error log?)
+        if (-1 == fd) return std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max();
+
         uint64_t value = 0;
 
         ssize_t ret = -1;