diff -r e8acef4f8567 Lib/doctest.py
--- a/Lib/doctest.py	Sun Apr 13 19:55:08 2014 +0300
+++ b/Lib/doctest.py	Mon Apr 14 13:59:46 2014 -0400
@@ -2376,15 +2376,6 @@
         suite = _DocTestSuite()
         suite.addTest(SkipDocTestCase(module))
         return suite
-    elif not tests:
-        # Why do we want to do this? Because it reveals a bug that might
-        # otherwise be hidden.
-        # It is probably a bug that this exception is not also raised if the
-        # number of doctest examples in tests is zero (i.e. if no doctest
-        # examples were found).  However, we should probably not be raising
-        # an exception at all here, though it is too late to make this change
-        # for a maintenance release.  See also issue #14649.
-        raise ValueError(module, "has no docstrings")
 
     tests.sort()
     suite = _DocTestSuite()
diff -r e8acef4f8567 Lib/test/test_doctest.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py	Sun Apr 13 19:55:08 2014 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py	Mon Apr 14 13:59:46 2014 -0400
@@ -2096,22 +2096,9 @@
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
 
-       However, if DocTestSuite finds no docstrings, it raises an error:
-
-         >>> try:
-         ...     doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings')
-         ... except ValueError as e:
-         ...     error = e
-
-         >>> print(error.args[1])
-         has no docstrings
-
-       You can prevent this error by passing a DocTestFinder instance with
-       the `exclude_empty` keyword argument set to False:
-
-         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder(exclude_empty=False)
-         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings',
-         ...                              test_finder=finder)
+       The module need not contain any docstrings either:
+
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings')
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
 
@@ -2121,6 +2108,22 @@
          >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
          <unittest.result.TestResult run=9 errors=0 failures=4>
 
+       We can also provide a DocTestFinder:
+
+         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder()
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest',
+         ...                          test_finder=finder)
+         >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
+         <unittest.result.TestResult run=9 errors=0 failures=4>
+
+       The DocTestFinder need not return any tests:
+
+         >>> finder = doctest.DocTestFinder()
+         >>> suite = doctest.DocTestSuite('test.sample_doctest_no_docstrings',
+         ...                          test_finder=finder)
+         >>> suite.run(unittest.TestResult())
+         <unittest.result.TestResult run=0 errors=0 failures=0>
+
        We can supply global variables.  If we pass globs, they will be
        used instead of the module globals.  Here we'll pass an empty
        globals, triggering an extra error: