diff --git a/mustache.js b/mustache.js
index e45861f..433714b 100644
--- a/mustache.js
+++ b/mustache.js
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@
    */
   function primitiveHasOwnProperty (primitive, propName) {  
     return (
-      typeof primitive !== 'object' 
-      && primitive !== undefined
+      primitive != null
+      && typeof primitive !== 'object'
       && primitive.hasOwnProperty
       && primitive.hasOwnProperty(propName)
     );
@@ -408,6 +408,12 @@
            *
            * This is specially necessary for when the value has been set to
            * `undefined` and we want to avoid looking up parent contexts.
+           *
+           * In the case where dot notation is used, we consider the lookup
+           * to be successful even if the last "object" in the path is
+           * not actually an object but a primitive (e.g., a string, or an
+           * integer), because it is sometimes useful to access a property
+           * of an autoboxed primitive, such as the length of a string.
            **/
           while (intermediateValue != null && index < names.length) {
             if (index === names.length - 1)
@@ -420,6 +426,19 @@
           }
         } else {
           intermediateValue = context.view[name];
+
+          /**
+           * Only checking against hasProperty, which always returns false if
+           * context.view is not an object. Deliberately omitting the check
+           * against primitiveHasOwnProperty if dot notation is not used.
+           *
+           * Consider this example:
+           * Mustache.render("{{#length}}{{length}}{{/length}}", {length: "hello"})
+           *
+           * If we were to check also against primitiveHasOwnProperty, as we do
+           * in the dot notation case, then render call would return 5, rather
+           * than the expected "hello".
+           **/
           lookupHit = hasProperty(context.view, name);
         }