diff --git a/crates/nu-parser/src/parser.rs b/crates/nu-parser/src/parser.rs
index 30de612f08..c355a5df01 100644
--- a/crates/nu-parser/src/parser.rs
+++ b/crates/nu-parser/src/parser.rs
@@ -1724,6 +1724,16 @@ pub fn parse_brace_expr(
     // the parse is ambiguous. We'll need to update the parts of the grammar where this is ambiguous
     // and then revisit the parsing.
 
+    if span.end <= (span.start + 1) {
+        return (
+            Expression::garbage(span),
+            Some(ParseError::Expected(
+                format!("non-block value: {shape}"),
+                span,
+            )),
+        );
+    }
+
     let bytes = working_set.get_span_contents(Span::new(span.start + 1, span.end - 1));
     let (tokens, _) = lex(bytes, span.start + 1, &[b'\r', b'\n', b'\t'], &[b':'], true);
 
diff --git a/src/tests/test_parser.rs b/src/tests/test_parser.rs
index 0cc2f9a71c..9c754ca470 100644
--- a/src/tests/test_parser.rs
+++ b/src/tests/test_parser.rs
@@ -482,3 +482,8 @@ fn unbalanced_delimiter() -> TestResult {
 fn unbalanced_delimiter2() -> TestResult {
     fail_test(r#"{}#.}"#, "unbalanced { and }")
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn unbalanced_delimiter3() -> TestResult {
+    fail_test(r#"{"#, "Unexpected end of code")
+}