diff --git a/telethon/telegram_bare_client.py b/telethon/telegram_bare_client.py
index d173a1c1..75928b69 100644
--- a/telethon/telegram_bare_client.py
+++ b/telethon/telegram_bare_client.py
@@ -411,9 +411,6 @@ class TelegramBareClient:
            The invoke will be retried up to 'retries' times before raising
            ValueError().
         """
-        # Any error from a background thread will be "posted" and checked here
-        self.updates.check_error()
-
         if not all(isinstance(x, TLObject) and
                    x.content_related for x in requests):
             raise ValueError('You can only invoke requests, not types!')
@@ -775,9 +772,16 @@ class TelegramBareClient:
                 while self._user_connected and not self._reconnect():
                     sleep(0.1)  # Retry forever, this is instant messaging
 
-            except Exception as e:
+            except Exception as error:
                 # Unknown exception, pass it to the main thread
-                self.updates.set_error(e)
+                self._logger.debug(
+                    '[ERROR] Unknown error on the read thread, please report',
+                    error
+                )
+                # If something strange happens we don't want to enter an
+                # infinite loop where all we do is raise an exception, so
+                # add a little sleep to avoid the CPU usage going mad.
+                sleep(0.1)
                 break
 
         self._recv_thread = None
diff --git a/telethon/update_state.py b/telethon/update_state.py
index 4402fb14..7e25549f 100644
--- a/telethon/update_state.py
+++ b/telethon/update_state.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class UpdateState:
                 self._updates_available.clear()
 
         if isinstance(update, Exception):
-            raise update  # Some error was set through .set_error()
+            raise update  # Some error was set through (surely StopIteration)
 
         return update
 
@@ -79,7 +79,12 @@ class UpdateState:
         """Raises "StopIterationException" on the worker threads to stop them,
            and also clears all of them off the list
         """
-        self.set_error(StopIteration())
+        with self._updates_lock:
+            # Insert at the beginning so the very next poll causes an error
+            # TODO Should this reset the pts and such?
+            self._updates.appendleft(StopIteration())
+            self._updates_available.set()
+
         for t in self._worker_threads:
             t.join()
 
@@ -116,21 +121,6 @@ class UpdateState:
                     '[ERROR] Unhandled exception on worker {}'.format(wid), e
                 )
 
-    def set_error(self, error):
-        """Sets an error, so that the next call to .poll() will raise it.
-           Can be (and is) used to pass exceptions between threads.
-        """
-        with self._updates_lock:
-            # Insert at the beginning so the very next poll causes an error
-            # TODO Should this reset the pts and such?
-            self._updates.appendleft(error)
-            self._updates_available.set()
-
-    def check_error(self):
-        with self._updates_lock:
-            if self._updates and isinstance(self._updates[0], Exception):
-                raise self._updates.popleft()
-
     def process(self, update):
         """Processes an update object. This method is normally called by
            the library itself.