diff --git a/lnwire/query_short_chan_ids.go b/lnwire/query_short_chan_ids.go
index 4dab6f4c..1f4c1d35 100644
--- a/lnwire/query_short_chan_ids.go
+++ b/lnwire/query_short_chan_ids.go
@@ -109,14 +109,6 @@ func decodeShortChanIDs(r io.Reader) (ShortChanIDEncoding, []ShortChannelID, err
 	// as that was just the encoding type.
 	queryBody = queryBody[1:]
 
-	// If after extracting the encoding type, then number of remaining
-	// bytes instead a whole multiple of the size of an encoded short
-	// channel ID (8 bytes), then we'll return a parsing error.
-	if len(queryBody)%8 != 0 {
-		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("whole number of short chan ID's "+
-			"cannot be encoded in len=%v", len(queryBody))
-	}
-
 	// Otherwise, depending on the encoding type, we'll decode the encode
 	// short channel ID's in a different manner.
 	switch encodingType {
@@ -124,6 +116,16 @@ func decodeShortChanIDs(r io.Reader) (ShortChanIDEncoding, []ShortChannelID, err
 	// In this encoding, we'll simply read a sort array of encoded short
 	// channel ID's from the buffer.
 	case EncodingSortedPlain:
+		// If after extracting the encoding type, then number of
+		// remaining bytes instead a whole multiple of the size of an
+		// encoded short channel ID (8 bytes), then we'll return a
+		// parsing error.
+		if len(queryBody)%8 != 0 {
+			return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("whole number of short "+
+				"chan ID's cannot be encoded in len=%v",
+				len(queryBody))
+		}
+
 		// As each short channel ID is encoded as 8 bytes, we can
 		// compute the number of bytes encoded based on the size of the
 		// query body.