diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/export.c b/fs/overlayfs/export.c
index 9df455ca59a8ed2ca1acf451e295b053a5e8a39b..97a916ea8b86ab89390ec1fe6dd25043d74e8212 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/export.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/export.c
@@ -477,8 +477,8 @@ static struct dentry *ovl_lookup_real_inode(struct super_block *sb,
 		dput(upper);
 	}
 
-	if (!this)
-		return NULL;
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(this))
+		return this;
 
 	if (WARN_ON(ovl_dentry_real_at(this, layer->idx) != real)) {
 		dput(this);