diff --git a/src/chonkie/utils/table_converter.py b/src/chonkie/utils/table_converter.py
index c5bb56a2..31b21207 100644
--- a/src/chonkie/utils/table_converter.py
+++ b/src/chonkie/utils/table_converter.py
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ def _read_markdown_table(table_content: str):
         ) from e
 
     lines = [line.strip("|").strip() for line in table_content.split("\n") if line.strip()]
-    if len(lines) < 2:
+    # Empty/blank headers (incl. multi-col "| | | |") yield EmptyDataError from pandas.
+    if len(lines) < 2 or not lines[0].replace("|", "").strip():
         return pd.DataFrame()
 
     csv_content = "\n".join([lines[0]] + lines[2:])
diff --git a/tests/test_table_converter.py b/tests/test_table_converter.py
index c34e74c4..5ead6871 100644
--- a/tests/test_table_converter.py
+++ b/tests/test_table_converter.py
@@ -68,6 +68,12 @@ def test_empty_table(self) -> None:
         """Test empty and header-only tables."""
         assert markdown_table_to_json("") == []
         assert markdown_table_to_json("| Name |\n|------|") == []
+        # Empty header cells must not leak pandas EmptyDataError.
+        assert markdown_table_to_json("|\n|-|") == []
+        assert markdown_table_to_json("||\n|-|") == []
+        # strip("|") leaves inner pipes for 3+ blank columns; still empty JSON.
+        assert markdown_table_to_json("| | | |\n|---|---|---|") == []
+        assert markdown_table_to_json("|  |  |  |  |\n|---|---|---|---|") == []
 
 
 class TestHTMLTableToJson: