diff --git a/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm b/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm
index dd5064aa..75e0a4d4 100644
--- a/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm
+++ b/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm
@@ -899,7 +899,8 @@ sub content {
 
     my $content = $self->{content};
     if ( delete $params{raw} ) {
-        $content = $self->response()->content();
+        my $res = $self->response();
+        $content = $res->content() if $res;
     }
     elsif ( delete $params{decoded_by_headers} ) {
         $content = $self->response()->decoded_content( charset => 'none' );
diff --git a/t/content.t b/t/content.t
index c146b715..86030dbd 100644
--- a/t/content.t
+++ b/t/content.t
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
 $mech->{base} = 'http://example.com/';
 
 is( $mech->content, undef, 'content starts out as undef' );
+is(
+    $mech->content( raw => 1 ),
+    undef, 'raw content is just as undef as normal'
+);
 
 $mech->update_html($html);