diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index a034928fb..040ebc7ff 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -116,6 +116,9 @@ Token *Tokenizer::copyTokens(Token *dest, const Token *first, const Token *last,
         if (tok2->str() == "(" || tok2->str() == "[" || tok2->str() == "{")
             links.push(tok2);
         else if (tok2->str() == ")" || tok2->str() == "]" || tok2->str() == "}") {
+            if (links.empty())
+                return tok2;
+
             Token * link = links.top();
 
             tok2->link(link);
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index 5930eee3c..967aaa88a 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ private:
         // don't freak out when the syntax is wrong
         TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax1);
         TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax2);
+        TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax3); // #3544
         TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax_if_macro);  // #2518 - if MACRO()
 
         TEST_CASE(minus);
@@ -658,6 +659,18 @@ private:
         tokenizeAndStringify(code);
     }
 
+    void wrong_syntax3() {   // #3544
+        const char code[] = "X #define\n"
+                            "{\n"
+                            " (\n"
+                            "  for(  #endif typedef typedef cb[N] )\n"
+                            "        ca[N]; =  cb[i]\n"
+                            " )\n"
+                            "}";
+
+        tokenizeAndStringify(code);
+    }
+
     void wrong_syntax_if_macro() {
         // #2518
         const std::string code("void f() { if MACRO(); }");