diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ccf76140..170c1648 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -142,10 +142,10 @@ require('js-yaml').load(untrusted_code) + ''
 ```
 
 
-### safeLoadAll (string, iterator [ , options ])
+### safeLoadAll (string [, iterator] [, options ])
 
-Same as `safeLoad()`, but understands multi-document sources and applies
-`iterator` to each document.
+Same as `safeLoad()`, but understands multi-document sources. Applies
+`iterator` to each document if specified, or returns aray of documents.
 
 ``` javascript
 var yaml = require('js-yaml');
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ yaml.safeLoadAll(data, function (doc) {
 ```
 
 
-### loadAll (string, iterator [ , options ])
+### loadAll (string [, iterator] [ , options ])
 
 Same as `safeLoadAll()` but uses `DEFAULT_FULL_SCHEMA` by default.
 
diff --git a/lib/js-yaml/loader.js b/lib/js-yaml/loader.js
index def3e71b..456133da 100644
--- a/lib/js-yaml/loader.js
+++ b/lib/js-yaml/loader.js
@@ -1556,6 +1556,10 @@ function loadDocuments(input, options) {
 function loadAll(input, iterator, options) {
   var documents = loadDocuments(input, options), index, length;
 
+  if (typeof iterator !== 'function') {
+    return documents;
+  }
+
   for (index = 0, length = documents.length; index < length; index += 1) {
     iterator(documents[index]);
   }
@@ -1576,7 +1580,11 @@ function load(input, options) {
 
 
 function safeLoadAll(input, output, options) {
-  loadAll(input, output, common.extend({ schema: DEFAULT_SAFE_SCHEMA }, options));
+  if (typeof output === 'function') {
+    loadAll(input, output, common.extend({ schema: DEFAULT_SAFE_SCHEMA }, options));
+  } else {
+    return loadAll(input, common.extend({ schema: DEFAULT_SAFE_SCHEMA }, options));
+  }
 }