diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAroundTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAroundTest.java
index f43a51a01..29c6aec90 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAroundTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAroundTest.java
@@ -207,4 +207,14 @@ public class WhitespaceAroundTest
                getPath("whitespace/InputDoWhileWhitespaceAround.java"),
                expected);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void allowEmptyMethods() throws Exception
+    {
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("allowEmptyMethods", "true");
+        final String[] expected = {};
+        verify(checkConfig,
+               getPath("whitespace/InputWhitespaceAround.java"),
+               expected);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputWhitespaceAround.java b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputWhitespaceAround.java
index f33e081cd..514b7ddbb 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputWhitespaceAround.java
+++ b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputWhitespaceAround.java
@@ -21,3 +21,11 @@ public class InputWhitespaceAround
         }
     }
 }
+
+@interface CronExpression {
+	Class<?>[] groups() default {}; 
+}
+
+@interface CronExpression {
+	Class<?>[] groups() default { }; // extra space
+}