diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 83746b7..5b5fcb5 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+03/06/2019
+- don't overwrite opts.discovery when an error occurs calling the
+  discovery endpoint; see #250
+
 02/18/2019
 - release 1.7.1
 
diff --git a/lib/resty/openidc.lua b/lib/resty/openidc.lua
index 7ebfe48..71333ab 100644
--- a/lib/resty/openidc.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/openidc.lua
@@ -586,8 +586,12 @@ end
 local function openidc_ensure_discovered_data(opts)
   local err
   if type(opts.discovery) == "string" then
-    opts.discovery, err = openidc_discover(opts.discovery, opts.ssl_verify, opts.timeout, opts.jwk_expires_in, opts.proxy_opts,
-                                           opts.http_request_decorator)
+    local discovery
+    discovery, err = openidc_discover(opts.discovery, opts.ssl_verify, opts.timeout, opts.jwk_expires_in, opts.proxy_opts,
+                                      opts.http_request_decorator)
+    if not err then
+      opts.discovery = discovery
+    end
   end
   return err
 end