diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
index 5a68b55e9..2dac9f756 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Utility/HashTest.php
@@ -2277,8 +2277,9 @@ class HashTest extends CakeTestCase {
 	}
 
 /**
- * Tests that nest() returns an empty array for invalid input instead of throwing notices.
+ * Tests that nest() throws an InvalidArgumentException when providing an invalid input.
  *
+ * @expectedException InvalidArgumentException
  * @return void
  */
 	public function testNestInvalid() {
@@ -2291,8 +2292,7 @@ class HashTest extends CakeTestCase {
 				)
 			)
 		);
-		$result = Hash::nest($input);
-		$this->assertSame(array(), $result);
+		Hash::nest($input);
 	}
 
 /**
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php b/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
index c08dc07fb..1b8cc1cfe 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Utility/Hash.php
@@ -1006,6 +1006,7 @@ class Hash {
  * @param array $options Options are:
  * @return array of results, nested
  * @see Hash::extract()
+ * @throws InvalidArgumentException When providing invalid data.
  * @link http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-utility-libraries/hash.html#Hash::nest
  */
 	public static function nest(array $data, $options = array()) {
@@ -1048,10 +1049,14 @@ class Hash {
 			}
 		}
 
+		if (!$return) {
+			throw new InvalidArgumentException(__d('cake_dev',
+				'Invalid data array to nest.'
+			));
+		}
+
 		if ($options['root']) {
 			$root = $options['root'];
-		} elseif (!$return) {
-			return array();
 		} else {
 			$root = self::get($return[0], $parentKeys);
 		}