diff --git a/pybyntic/buffer.py b/pybyntic/buffer.py
index 62b5c25..def29dc 100644
--- a/pybyntic/buffer.py
+++ b/pybyntic/buffer.py
@@ -9,9 +9,6 @@ class Buffer:
     def __init__(self, data: bytes):
         self.buffer = bytearray(data)
 
-    def _is_buffer_empty(self) -> bool:
-        return len(self.buffer) == 0
-
     def is_buffer_readable(self) -> bool:
         if len(self.buffer) == 0:
             return False
@@ -31,6 +28,8 @@ def read_varint(self) -> int:
             packets.append(packet)
             if packet < 0x80:
                 break
+        if not packets:
+            return 0
         return leb128.u.decode(packets)  # type: ignore
 
     def read_bytes(self, length: int) -> bytearray: