diff --git a/bin/hangman b/bin/hangman
index e5792ef2..03f77b7f 100755
--- a/bin/hangman
+++ b/bin/hangman
@@ -73,26 +73,19 @@ print "\nTHANKS FOR PLAYING!\n";
 sub get_a_word {
 	my $wordlist = "wordlist.txt";
 	my( $fh, $word );
-	my( $line_num ) = 1;
 	my( $random ) = rand();
 
 	open($fh, '<', $wordlist) or die "Could not open <$wordlist>: $!\n";
 	my $lines = 0;
 	$lines++ while (<$fh>);
+	die "Empty word list: $wordlist\n" unless $lines;
 	my $val = int($random * $lines) + 1;
-
 	close($fh) or die "Could not close <$wordlist>: $!\n";
-	open($fh, '<', $wordlist) or die "Could not open <$wordlist>: $!\n";
 
-	while( <$fh> ) {
-		if( $line_num == $val ) {
-			$word = $_;
-			chomp( $word );
-			last;
-		} else {
-			$line_num++;
-		}
-	}
+	open($fh, '<', $wordlist) or die "Could not open <$wordlist>: $!\n";
+	$word = <$fh> for (1 .. $val);
+	die "Could not find a word in $wordlist\n" unless defined $word;
+	chomp $word;
 	close($fh) or die "Could not close <$wordlist>: $!\n";
 	return( $word );
 }