diff --git a/git-add--interactive.perl b/git-add--interactive.perl
index c1f52e457f..36f38ced90 100755
--- a/git-add--interactive.perl
+++ b/git-add--interactive.perl
@@ -205,8 +205,15 @@ sub list_untracked {
 	}
 }
 
-sub get_empty_tree {
-	return '4b825dc642cb6eb9a060e54bf8d69288fbee4904';
+{
+	my $empty_tree;
+	sub get_empty_tree {
+		return $empty_tree if defined $empty_tree;
+
+		$empty_tree = run_cmd_pipe(qw(git hash-object -t tree /dev/null));
+		chomp $empty_tree;
+		return $empty_tree;
+	}
 }
 
 sub get_diff_reference {