diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
index 1b21fbc16d73..5fd85f517868 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
@@ -1971,8 +1971,7 @@ static void ocfs2_xa_remove_entry(struct ocfs2_xa_loc *loc)
 	ocfs2_xa_wipe_namevalue(loc);
 	loc->xl_entry = NULL;
 
-	le16_add_cpu(&xh->xh_count, -1);
-	count = le16_to_cpu(xh->xh_count);
+	count = le16_to_cpu(xh->xh_count) - 1;
 
 	/*
 	 * Only zero out the entry if there are more remaining.  This is
@@ -1987,6 +1986,8 @@ static void ocfs2_xa_remove_entry(struct ocfs2_xa_loc *loc)
 		memset(&xh->xh_entries[count], 0,
 		       sizeof(struct ocfs2_xattr_entry));
 	}
+
+	xh->xh_count = cpu_to_le16(count);
 }
 
 /*