diff --git a/ascon.c b/ascon.c
index b64c914d..2f6a51c2 100644
--- a/ascon.c
+++ b/ascon.c
@@ -587,6 +587,11 @@ AsconStatus AsconTask(Ascon * a)
       }
       a->state = AsconReadStart;
       break;
+    case AsconReading:
+      if (result != 0) {
+        break; /* char received: try again, probably more characters pending */
+      }
+      return AsconPending;
     case AsconReadDone:
       a->state = AsconIdle;
       a->responseValid = 1;
@@ -609,10 +614,7 @@ AsconStatus AsconTask(Ascon * a)
       }
       return AsconFailure;
     default:
-      if (result) {
-        return AsconPending;
-      }
-      break;
+      return AsconPending;
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/ascon.i b/ascon.i
index e8bdd0ef..7ee8b375 100644
--- a/ascon.i
+++ b/ascon.i
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ struct Ascon {
  *    value should be 1
  *    when the state was AsconReading, a 1 indicates that a character was read
  *    and the character is stored in the lastChar field. A 0 indicates
- *    that no charater was read.
+ *    that no character was read.
  *
  *
  * In most cases a custom handler may be a wrapper around AsconBaseHandler