diff --git a/PyPDF2/generic/_data_structures.py b/PyPDF2/generic/_data_structures.py
index 79a87b99f..7c05324c1 100644
--- a/PyPDF2/generic/_data_structures.py
+++ b/PyPDF2/generic/_data_structures.py
@@ -687,7 +687,7 @@ def __init__(
             data = b""
             for s in stream:
                 data += b_(s.get_object().get_data())
-                if data[-1] != b"\n":
+                if len(data) == 0 or data[-1] != b"\n":
                     data += b"\n"
             stream_bytes = BytesIO(data)
         else: