diff --git a/lib/Catalyst.pm b/lib/Catalyst.pm
index 832c7c40..33d1dbad 100644
--- a/lib/Catalyst.pm
+++ b/lib/Catalyst.pm
@@ -4088,7 +4088,10 @@ sub default_data_handlers {
           my $slurped;
           return eval {
             local $/;
-            $slurped = $fh->getline;
+            if ($fh) {
+                $fh->seek(0,0); # in case it's already been read
+                $slurped = $fh->getline;
+            }
             JSON::MaybeXS::decode_json($slurped); # decode_json does utf8 decoding for us
           } || Catalyst::Exception->throw(sprintf "Error Parsing POST '%s', Error: %s", (defined($slurped) ? $slurped : 'undef') ,$@);
         },
diff --git a/t/rewind_filehandle.t b/t/rewind_filehandle.t
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..944f4fb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/rewind_filehandle.t
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+use Test::More;
+
+# Test case for reported issue when an action consumes JSON but a
+# POST sends nothing we get a hard error
+
+{
+  package MyApp::Controller::Root;
+  $INC{'MyApp/Controller/Root.pm'} = __FILE__;
+
+  use base 'Catalyst::Controller';
+
+  sub auto :Private {
+      my ($self, $c) = @_;
+      my $req_body = $c->req->body;
+      if ($req_body) {
+          $c->req->body->getline;
+      }
+
+      return 1; # continue dispatch
+  }
+
+  sub foo :Local Args(0) POST Consumes(JSON) {
+      my ($self, $c) =@_;
+      # try to access the deserialised JSON param via body_params
+      my $name = $c->req->body_data->{name};
+      $c->res->body("Hi, $name!");
+  }
+
+  package MyApp;
+  use Catalyst;
+  MyApp->setup;
+}
+
+use HTTP::Request::Common;
+use Catalyst::Test 'MyApp';
+
+{
+  # Send POSTed JSON data to our handler that will read the body filehandle
+  # via $req->body filehandle then call body_params (see GH PR #186)
+  ok my $res = request POST 'root/foo',
+    'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
+    'Content' => '{"name": "Jack", "age": 42}';
+
+  is $res->content, 'Hi, Jack!'; # don't say that on an aeroplane
+}
+
+done_testing();