diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/dir.c b/fs/ocfs2/dir.c
index b9bf1428a3d9..3c2dacba9b0a 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/dir.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/dir.c
@@ -3444,6 +3444,14 @@ static int ocfs2_find_dir_space_id(struct inode *dir, struct buffer_head *di_bh,
 		offset += le16_to_cpu(de->rec_len);
 	}
 
+	if (!last_de) {
+		ret = ocfs2_error(sb, "Directory entry (#%llu: size=%lld) "
+				  "is unexpectedly short",
+				  (unsigned long long)OCFS2_I(dir)->ip_blkno,
+				  i_size_read(dir));
+		goto out;
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * We're going to require expansion of the directory - figure
 	 * out how many blocks we'll need so that a place for the