diff --git a/Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt b/Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt
index f1a51edf47f94f45ce916f7800924e6f135800e2..b898e97988311fe411c02f9f3fe45608e862a71a 100644
--- a/Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt
+++ b/Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt
@@ -228,8 +228,7 @@ obtained through ref discovery.
 The client MUST write all obj-ids which it only has shallow copies
 of (meaning that it does not have the parents of a commit) as
 'shallow' lines so that the server is aware of the limitations of
-the client's history. Clients MUST NOT mention an obj-id which
-it does not know exists on the server.
+the client's history.
 
 The client now sends the maximum commit history depth it wants for
 this transaction, which is the number of commits it wants from the
diff --git a/upload-pack.c b/upload-pack.c
index bfa6279cc418278079bd95854adfe8d8301b6788..127e59a6037a14ad63648a727e873fe4a9e38381 100644
--- a/upload-pack.c
+++ b/upload-pack.c
@@ -592,7 +592,7 @@ static void receive_needs(void)
 				die("invalid shallow line: %s", line);
 			object = parse_object(sha1);
 			if (!object)
-				die("did not find object for %s", line);
+				continue;
 			if (object->type != OBJ_COMMIT)
 				die("invalid shallow object %s", sha1_to_hex(sha1));
 			if (!(object->flags & CLIENT_SHALLOW)) {