diff --git a/src/Client/SocketClient.php b/src/Client/SocketClient.php
index 538dd06..f770d54 100644
--- a/src/Client/SocketClient.php
+++ b/src/Client/SocketClient.php
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ final class SocketClient implements ClientInterface
     private string $address;
     private int $timeout;
 
-    public function __construct(string $address, int $timeout = 30)
+    public function __construct(string $address, int $timeout = 5)
     {
         $this->address = $address;
         $this->timeout = $timeout;
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ public function connect(): void
                 STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT,
                 $context
             );
+            stream_set_timeout($this->socket, $this->timeout);
             if ($socket === false) {
                 throw new ClientConnectionException(
                     sprintf('Cannot establish connection: [%d] %s', $errorCode, $errorMessage)
diff --git a/src/Memcached.php b/src/Memcached.php
index e042b72..f1d5625 100644
--- a/src/Memcached.php
+++ b/src/Memcached.php
@@ -48,10 +48,13 @@ public function get(string $key): ?string
         }
         if (strpos($header, 'VALUE ') === 0) {
             [, , , $bytes] = explode(' ', trim($header));
-            if (!$bytes) {
+            if (!is_numeric($bytes)) {
                 throw new ResponseErrorException('Cannot parse header');
             }
-            $data = $this->client->read((int)$bytes)->current();
+            $data = null;
+            if ($bytes) {
+                $data = $this->client->read((int)$bytes)->current();
+            }
             $line->next();
             $end = $line->current();
             if ($end !== null) {
diff --git a/tests/Unit/MemcachedTest.php b/tests/Unit/MemcachedTest.php
index 24c40ef..de3ae64 100644
--- a/tests/Unit/MemcachedTest.php
+++ b/tests/Unit/MemcachedTest.php
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ public function testGetReturnsValueWhenKeyExists(): void
                 yield "VALUE key 0 5\r\n";
             })(),
             (static function (): Generator {
-                yield "value\r\n";
+                yield "value";
                 yield "END\r\n";
             })(),
         );