diff --git a/t/run/todo.t b/t/run/todo.t
index 2664a2ce59cb..124681e05fe0 100644
--- a/t/run/todo.t
+++ b/t/run/todo.t
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ TODO: {
     "undef:de567\nundef:de567", { eval $switches }, "");
 }
 
+TODO: {
+    local $::TODO = 'GH 16865';
+    fresh_perl('\(sort { 0 } 0, 0 .. "a")', { stderr => 'devnull' });
+    is($?, 0, "No assertion failure");
+}
+
 TODO: {
     todo_skip "Test needs -DDEBUGGING", 1 unless $is_debugging_build;
     local $::TODO = 'GH 16876';