Empty directories when opened in nautilus should open with a message stating that this directory is empty. This helps to avoid the confusion for the user when she thinks that some items are being loaded and she needs to wait for items to appear in the directory.

I can see this behaviour/confusion in action when I try to mount the remote owncloud in my nautilus, the mounting process takes considerable amount of time, and till then it shows the user an empty screen making it difficult for user whether this is empty or being loaded.