diff --git a/src/plugins/plugin.py b/src/plugins/plugin.py
index 781be53d00598bc46ad181928b74b471ad1c4cea..b668c276576c590c59d612355e5e3e28bec588e1 100644
--- a/src/plugins/plugin.py
+++ b/src/plugins/plugin.py
@@ -259,6 +259,8 @@ class GajimPluginConfig():
                     s = shelve.open(self.FILE_PATH)
                     for (k, v) in s.iteritems():
                         self.data[k] = v
+                    if not isinstance(self.data, dict):
+                        raise GajimPluginException
                     s.close()
                     self.save()
                 except:
diff --git a/src/roster_window.py b/src/roster_window.py
index 7bf6d58aeebb47391d9cf891e0323c301c86b331..78c879a7f0ae12b35fdf55e18a9fd8ee4f7243c9 100644
--- a/src/roster_window.py
+++ b/src/roster_window.py
@@ -1192,10 +1192,10 @@ class RosterWindow:
 
         # add status msg, if not empty, under contact name in
         # the treeview
+        if not contact.status:
+            contact.status = ' '
         if contact.status and gajim.config.get('show_status_msgs_in_roster'):
-            status = contact.status.strip()
-            if status != '':
-                status = helpers.reduce_chars_newlines(status,
+                status = helpers.reduce_chars_newlines(contact.status,
                         max_lines = 1)
                 # escape markup entities and make them small
                 # italic and fg color color is calcuted to be