diff --git a/legacy/evas/src/lib/engines/common/evas_encoding.c b/legacy/evas/src/lib/engines/common/evas_encoding.c
index cfa389e23f..7653171eea 100644
--- a/legacy/evas/src/lib/engines/common/evas_encoding.c
+++ b/legacy/evas/src/lib/engines/common/evas_encoding.c
@@ -132,14 +132,14 @@ evas_common_encoding_utf8_get_prev(const char *buf, int *iindex)
 
    int r;
    int index = *iindex;
-   /* although when index == 0 there's no previous char, we still want to get
-    * the current char */
-   if (index < 0) 
-     return 0;
-
    /* First obtain the codepoint at iindex */
    r = evas_common_encoding_utf8_get_next(buf, &index);
 
+   /* although when index == 0 there's no previous char, we still want to get
+    * the current char */
+   if (*iindex < 0)
+     return r;
+
    /* Next advance iindex to previous codepoint */
    index = *iindex;
    index--;