diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
index 94915811c9b145..00d47cf7fd61b8 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@ Indexing
 - Fixed :func:`TimedeltaIndex.get_loc` handling of ``np.timedelta64`` inputs (:issue:`16909`).
 - Fix :func:`MultiIndex.sort_index` ordering when ``ascending`` argument is a list, but not all levels are specified, or are in a different order (:issue:`16934`).
 - Fixes bug where indexing with ``np.inf`` caused an ``OverflowError`` to be raised (:issue:`16957`)
+- Bug in reindexing on an empty ``CategoricalIndex`` (:issue:`16770`)
 
 I/O
 ^^^
diff --git a/pandas/core/indexes/category.py b/pandas/core/indexes/category.py
index c9e0e3b10875c4..e8427f847dd2dd 100644
--- a/pandas/core/indexes/category.py
+++ b/pandas/core/indexes/category.py
@@ -419,7 +419,11 @@ def reindex(self, target, method=None, level=None, limit=None,
             raise ValueError("cannot reindex with a non-unique indexer")
 
         indexer, missing = self.get_indexer_non_unique(np.array(target))
-        new_target = self.take(indexer)
+
+        if len(self.codes):
+            new_target = self.take(indexer)
+        else:
+            new_target = target
 
         # filling in missing if needed
         if len(missing):
@@ -430,7 +434,6 @@ def reindex(self, target, method=None, level=None, limit=None,
                 result = Index(np.array(self), name=self.name)
                 new_target, indexer, _ = result._reindex_non_unique(
                     np.array(target))
-
             else:
 
                 codes = new_target.codes.copy()
diff --git a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_category.py b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_category.py
index 14f344acbefb2e..e8d780e041316e 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/indexes/test_category.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/indexes/test_category.py
@@ -419,6 +419,14 @@ def test_reindex_dtype(self):
         tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(indexer,
                                     np.array([0, 3, 2], dtype=np.intp))
 
+    def test_reindex_empty_index(self):
+        # See GH16770
+        c = CategoricalIndex([])
+        res, indexer = c.reindex(['a', 'b'])
+        tm.assert_index_equal(res, Index(['a', 'b']), exact=True)
+        tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(indexer,
+                                    np.array([-1, -1], dtype=np.intp))
+
     def test_duplicates(self):
 
         idx = CategoricalIndex([0, 0, 0], name='foo')