diff --git a/Modules/cStringIO.c b/Modules/cStringIO.c
index 14e35f3..fd28aa9 100644
--- a/Modules/cStringIO.c
+++ b/Modules/cStringIO.c
@@ -544,6 +544,7 @@
 	if (!self->buf) {
                   PyErr_SetString(PyExc_MemoryError,"out of memory");
                   self->buf_size = 0;
+                  Py_DECREF(self);
                   return NULL;
           }