diff --git a/drivers/md/dm-bufio.c b/drivers/md/dm-bufio.c
index 2dd33085b331da5bee79392dcf30f7e2c734f70b..7734298bff3c9f8e0acb8e60846799e63dfa99d9 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm-bufio.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm-bufio.c
@@ -1068,7 +1068,7 @@ static void *new_read(struct dm_bufio_client *c, sector_t block,
 	__flush_write_list(&write_list);
 
 	if (!b)
-		return b;
+		return NULL;
 
 	if (need_submit)
 		submit_io(b, READ, b->block, read_endio);