diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/inline.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/inline.pm
index d7117b611..1fbd8b69c 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/inline.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/inline.pm
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ sub preprocess_inline (@) { #{{{
 	my %params=@_;
 	
 	if (! exists $params{pages}) {
-		return "";
+		return "[[inline ".gettext("missing pages parameter")."]]";
 	}
 	my $raw=yesno($params{raw});
 	my $archive=yesno($params{archive});
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c5b46f367..ca916bcd3 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ ikiwiki (2.47) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     a cgi.
   * orphans: As a special case, the toplevel index page is never considered
     an orphaned page.
+  * inline: Display a message if the 'pages' parameter is missing, before
+    it just expanded to nothing.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Tue, 13 May 2008 12:30:18 -0400