diff --git a/tests/test_core.py b/tests/test_core.py
index a7c2758..1abfd2f 100644
--- a/tests/test_core.py
+++ b/tests/test_core.py
@@ -324,3 +324,10 @@ class TwythonAPITestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertTrue('<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24AAPL" class="twython-symbol">$AAPL</a>' in tweet_text)
         self.assertTrue('<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ANOTHER" class="twython-symbol">$ANOTHER</a>' not in tweet_text)
 
+    def test_html_for_tweet_no_entities(self):
+        """Test HTML for tweet returns tweet text if it has no entities"""
+        tweet = test_tweet_object
+        del(tweet['entities'])
+        tweet_text = self.api.html_for_tweet(tweet)
+        self.assertEqual(tweet['text'], tweet_text)
+
diff --git a/twython/api.py b/twython/api.py
index ce11a68..8fe1a0b 100644
--- a/twython/api.py
+++ b/twython/api.py
@@ -544,8 +544,9 @@ class Twython(EndpointsMixin, object):
         if 'retweeted_status' in tweet:
             tweet = tweet['retweeted_status']
 
+        text = tweet['text']
+
         if 'entities' in tweet:
-            text = tweet['text']
             entities = tweet['entities']
 
             # Mentions