The paper addresses the issue of the different meanings of the term ‘clean bill of lading’ in the law governing carriage of goods by sea and letters of credit respectively. While under the letter of credit rules, the term 'clean bill of lading' is limited to bills of lading that contain notations related to the defective condition of the goods and packaging, under the carriage by sea rules the meaning of this term is broader and it includes reservations concerning the quantity of the goods. In the latter case, the term ’claused bill of lading’ is often used, and the author argues that the ‘claused bill’ cannot be a ‘clean’ bill. The issue raised by the paper is whether the same term should be given different meanings, even if this may not cause many problems in practice.