diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
index 340e527..c2e6720 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/KorapIndex.java
@@ -476,18 +476,29 @@
      */
     public long numberOf (KorapCollection collection,
 			  String field,
-			  String type) throws IOException {
+			  String type) {
 	// Short cut for documents
 	if (type.equals("documents")) {
 	    if (collection.getCount() <= 0) {
-		return (long) this.reader().numDocs();
+		try {
+		    return (long) this.reader().numDocs();
+		}
+		catch (Exception e) {
+		    log.warn(e.getLocalizedMessage());
+		};
+		return (long) 0;
 	    };
 
 	    long docCount = 0;
 	    int i = 1;
-	    for (AtomicReaderContext atomic : this.reader().leaves()) {
-		docCount += collection.bits(atomic).cardinality();
-		i++;
+	    try {
+		for (AtomicReaderContext atomic : this.reader().leaves()) {
+		    docCount += collection.bits(atomic).cardinality();
+		    i++;
+		};
+	    }
+	    catch (IOException e) {
+		log.warn(e.getLocalizedMessage());
 	    };
 	    return docCount;
 	};
@@ -508,14 +519,14 @@
 	}
 
 	// Something went wrong
-	catch (IOException e) {
+	catch (Exception e) {
 	    log.warn( e.getLocalizedMessage() );
 	};
 
 	return occurrences;
     };
 
-    public long numberOf (String field, String type) throws IOException {
+    public long numberOf (String field, String type) {
 	return this.numberOf(new KorapCollection(this), field, type);
     };
 
@@ -528,7 +539,7 @@
      *
      * @see #numberOf(String, String)
      */
-    public long numberOf (String type) throws IOException {
+    public long numberOf (String type) {
 	return this.numberOf("tokens", type);
     };
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/server/Resource.java b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/server/Resource.java
index e777ce2..aa718ce 100644
--- a/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/server/Resource.java
+++ b/src/main/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/server/Resource.java
@@ -90,15 +90,8 @@
 	KorapResponse kresp = new KorapResponse(KorapNode.getName(), index.getVersion());
 	kresp.setListener(KorapNode.getListener());
 	long texts = -1;
-	try {
-	    // Try to receive the number of documents
-	    texts = index.numberOf("documents");
-	}
-	catch (IOException e) {
-	    log.error(e.getLocalizedMessage());
-	};
 
-	return kresp.setTotalTexts(texts)
+	return kresp.setTotalTexts(index.numberOf("documents"))
 	    .setMsg("Up and running!")
 	    .toJSON();
     };
diff --git a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKorapIndex.java b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKorapIndex.java
index 9ce5175..b2a0507 100644
--- a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKorapIndex.java
+++ b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestKorapIndex.java
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@
     public void indexExample () throws IOException {
 	KorapIndex ki = new KorapIndex();
 
+	assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "documents"));
+	assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "tokens"));
+	assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "sentences"));
+	assertEquals(0, ki.numberOf("base", "paragraphs"));
+
 	FieldDocument fd = new FieldDocument();
 
 	fd.addString("name", "Peter");