diff --git a/sgx-catapult.rb b/sgx-catapult.rb
index fb6e6db490b712379f356aa919221d70c985f1d8..e50514054fa0e106a9e0ba22ff5447825c684c68 100755
--- a/sgx-catapult.rb
+++ b/sgx-catapult.rb
@@ -135,10 +135,7 @@ module SGXcatapult
 	end
 
 	def self.error_msg(orig, query_node, type, name, text=nil)
-		if not query_node.nil?
-			orig.add_child(query_node)
-			orig.type = :error
-		end
+		orig.type = :error
 
 		error = Nokogiri::XML::Node.new 'error', orig.document
 		error['type'] = type
@@ -148,6 +145,8 @@ module SGXcatapult
 		suberr['xmlns'] = 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'
 		error.add_child(suberr)
 
+		orig.add_child(query_node) if query_node
+
 		# TODO: add some explanatory xml:lang='en' text (see text param)
 		puts "RESPONSE3: #{orig.inspect}"
 		return orig