diff --git a/src/condensed.py b/src/condensed.py
--- a/src/condensed.py
+++ b/src/condensed.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ class SException(Exception): pass
 def reconstruct_raw(*shares):
 	"""Tries to recover the secret from its shares.
 
-	:param shares: ((i, (bytes) share), ...)
+	:param shares: (((int) i, (bytes) share), ...)
 	:return: (bytes) reconstructed secret. Too few shares returns garbage."""
 	secret_len = len(shares[0][1])
 	res = [None]*secret_len
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ def reconstruct(*shares):
 
 def decode(share):
 	try:
-		(i, _, share_str) = share.partition(".")
+		(*_, i, share_str) = share.split(".")
 		i = int(i)
 		if not 1<=i<=255:
 			raise SException("Malformed share: Failed 1<=k<=255, k={0}".format(i))