  We study a one-dimensional topological superconductor, the Kitaev chain,
under the influence of a non-Hermitian but $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric potential.
This potential introduces gain and loss in the system in equal parts. We show
that the stability of the topological phase is influenced by the gain/loss
strength and explicitly derive the bulk topological invariant in a bipartite
lattice as well as compute the corresponding phase diagram using analytical and
numerical methods. Furthermore we find that the edge state is exponentially
localized near the ends of the wire despite the presence of gain and loss of
probability amplitude in that region.
