diff --git a/.htaccess b/.htaccess
index 73ce26b..476f23f 100644
--- a/.htaccess
+++ b/.htaccess
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ AddEncoding gzip svgz
 
 # PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2.
 <IfModule mod_php5.c>
-  php_value assert.active                   0
+  php_value assert.active                   1
   php_flag session.auto_start               off
   php_value mbstring.http_input             pass
   php_value mbstring.http_output            pass
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Cache/PhpBackend.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Cache/PhpBackend.php
index 761e394..4112329 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Cache/PhpBackend.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Cache/PhpBackend.php
@@ -77,10 +77,8 @@ protected function getByHash($cidhash, $allow_invalid = FALSE) {
     if ($file = $this->storage()->getFullPath($cidhash)) {
       $cache = @include $file;
     }
-    if (isset($cache)) {
-      return $this->prepareItem($cache, $allow_invalid);
-    }
-    return FALSE;
+
+    return empty($cache) ? FALSE : $this->prepareItem($cache, $allow_invalid);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -125,6 +123,8 @@ public function getMultiple(&$cids, $allow_invalid = FALSE) {
    *   valid item to load.
    */
   protected function prepareItem($cache, $allow_invalid) {
+    assert('is_object($cache)');
+
     if (!isset($cache->data)) {
       return FALSE;
     }