diff --git a/file.go b/file.go
index 164c517..0dcbb1a 100644
--- a/file.go
+++ b/file.go
@@ -174,6 +174,10 @@ func OpenFile(r io.ReaderAt, size int64, options ...FileOption) (*File, error) {
 // this case the page index is not cached within the file, programs are expected
 // to make use of independently from the parquet package.
 func (f *File) ReadPageIndex() ([]format.ColumnIndex, []format.OffsetIndex, error) {
+	if len(f.metadata.RowGroups) == 0 {
+		return nil, nil, nil
+	}
+
 	columnIndexOffset := f.metadata.RowGroups[0].Columns[0].ColumnIndexOffset
 	offsetIndexOffset := f.metadata.RowGroups[0].Columns[0].OffsetIndexOffset
 	columnIndexLength := int64(0)
diff --git a/testdata/empty.parquet b/testdata/empty.parquet
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e36cbef
Binary files /dev/null and b/testdata/empty.parquet differ