diff --git a/Doc/library/doctest.rst b/Doc/library/doctest.rst
index 50626e9..fb63fde 100644
--- a/Doc/library/doctest.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/doctest.rst
@@ -1058,15 +1058,9 @@
 
    This function uses the same search technique as :func:`testmod`.
 
-   .. note::
-      Unlike :func:`testmod` and :class:`DocTestFinder`, this function raises
-      a :exc:`ValueError` if *module* contains no docstrings.  You can prevent
-      this error by passing a :class:`DocTestFinder` instance as the
-      *test_finder* argument with its *exclude_empty* keyword argument set
-      to ``False``::
-
-         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder(exclude_empty=False)
-         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite(test_finder=finder)
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.5
+      :func:`DocTestSuite` returns an empty :class:`unittest.TestSuite` if *module*
+      contains no docstrings instead of raising :exc:`ValueError`.
 
 
 Under the covers, :func:`DocTestSuite` creates a :class:`unittest.TestSuite` out
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
index 7050e0a..b9ad684 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
@@ -154,6 +154,10 @@
   applications where startup time is paramount (contributed by Brett Cannon in
   :issue:`17621`).
 
+* :func:`doctest.DocTestSuite` returns an empty :class:`unittest.TestSuite` if
+  *module* contains no docstrings instead of raising :exc:`ValueError`
+  (contributed by Glenn Jones in :issue:`15916`).
+
 
 Optimizations
 =============
diff --git a/Lib/doctest.py b/Lib/doctest.py
index d212ad6..be824f4 100644
--- a/Lib/doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/doctest.py
@@ -2376,15 +2376,6 @@
         suite = _DocTestSuite()
         suite.addTest(SkipDocTestCase(module))
         return suite
-    elif not tests:
-        # Why do we want to do this? Because it reveals a bug that might
-        # otherwise be hidden.
-        # It is probably a bug that this exception is not also raised if the
-        # number of doctest examples in tests is zero (i.e. if no doctest
-        # examples were found).  However, we should probably not be raising
-        # an exception at all here, though it is too late to make this change
-        # for a maintenance release.  See also issue #14649.
-        raise ValueError(module, "has no docstrings")
 
     tests.sort()
     suite = _DocTestSuite()
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
index a1029ed..5eb8474 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
@@ -2096,22 +2096,9 @@
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
 
-       However, if DocTestSuite finds no docstrings, it raises an error:
+       The module need not contain any docstrings either:
 
-         >>> try:
-         ...     doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings')
-         ... except ValueError as e:
-         ...     error = e
-
-         >>> print(error.args[1])
-         has no docstrings
-
-       You can prevent this error by passing a DocTestFinder instance with
-       the `exclude_empty` keyword argument set to False:
-
-         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder(exclude_empty=False)
-         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings',
-         ...                              test_finder=finder)
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings')
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
 
@@ -2121,6 +2108,22 @@
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=9 errors=0 failures=4>
 
+       We can also provide a DocTestFinder:
+
+         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder()
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest',
+         ...                          test_finder=finder)
+         >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
+         <unittest.result.TestResult run=9 errors=0 failures=4>
+
+       The DocTestFinder need not return any tests:
+
+         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder()
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings',
+         ...                          test_finder=finder)
+         >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
+         <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
+
        We can supply global variables.  If we pass globs, they will be
        used instead of the module globals.  Here we'll pass an empty
        globals, triggering an extra error:
diff --git a/Misc/ACKS b/Misc/ACKS
index d3866fd..4767dde 100644
--- a/Misc/ACKS
+++ b/Misc/ACKS
@@ -630,6 +630,7 @@
 Nicolas Joly
 Brian K. Jones
 Evan Jones
+Glenn Jones
 Jeremy Jones
 Richard Jones
 Irmen de Jong
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index b86cc7f..b302093 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -203,6 +203,9 @@
 
 - Issue #20334: inspect.Signature and inspect.Parameter are now hashable.
 
+- Issue #15916: doctest.DocTestSuite returns an empty unittest.TestSuite instead
+  of raising ValueError if it finds no tests
+
 IDLE
 ----