diff --git a/read-tree.c b/read-tree.c
index 0d94fe214d4fd7b24b00f419097f79dab4889670..0d5ded5026c0a87987938c498e271c1d8cce122c 100644
--- a/read-tree.c
+++ b/read-tree.c
@@ -543,6 +543,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 			merge = 1;
 			stage = 1;
 			read_cache_unmerged();
+			continue;
 		}
 
 		/* "-m" stands for "merge", meaning we start in stage 1 */