diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index bcf0fc55fd..add5f9f50a 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -340,7 +340,8 @@ struct index_state {
 	struct split_index *split_index;
 	struct cache_time timestamp;
 	unsigned name_hash_initialized : 1,
-		 initialized : 1;
+		 initialized : 1,
+		 drop_cache_tree : 1;
 	struct hashmap name_hash;
 	struct hashmap dir_hash;
 	unsigned char sha1[20];
diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 1248a09de4..5cd14e2f72 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -2199,7 +2199,7 @@ static int do_write_index(struct index_state *istate, struct tempfile *tempfile,
 	struct stat st;
 	struct ondisk_cache_entry_extended ondisk;
 	struct strbuf previous_name_buf = STRBUF_INIT, *previous_name;
-	int drop_cache_tree = 0;
+	int drop_cache_tree = istate->drop_cache_tree;
 
 	for (i = removed = extended = 0; i < entries; i++) {
 		if (cache[i]->ce_flags & CE_REMOVE)
diff --git a/split-index.c b/split-index.c
index 83e39ec8d7..284d04d67f 100644
--- a/split-index.c
+++ b/split-index.c
@@ -238,6 +238,8 @@ void prepare_to_write_split_index(struct index_state *istate)
 				ALLOC_GROW(entries, nr_entries+1, nr_alloc);
 				entries[nr_entries++] = ce;
 			}
+			if (is_null_oid(&ce->oid))
+				istate->drop_cache_tree = 1;
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/t/t1700-split-index.sh b/t/t1700-split-index.sh
index 22f69a410b..322721dd64 100755
--- a/t/t1700-split-index.sh
+++ b/t/t1700-split-index.sh
@@ -400,4 +400,23 @@ done <<\EOF
 0642 -rw-r---w-
 EOF
 
+test_expect_success 'writing split index with null sha1 does not write cache tree' '
+	git config core.splitIndex true &&
+	git config splitIndex.maxPercentChange 0 &&
+	git commit -m "commit" &&
+	{
+		git ls-tree HEAD &&
+		printf "160000 commit $_z40\\tbroken\\n"
+	} >broken-tree &&
+	echo "add broken entry" >msg &&
+
+	tree=$(git mktree <broken-tree) &&
+	test_tick &&
+	commit=$(git commit-tree $tree -p HEAD <msg) &&
+	git update-ref HEAD "$commit" &&
+	GIT_ALLOW_NULL_SHA1=1 git reset --hard &&
+	(test-dump-cache-tree >cache-tree.out || true) &&
+	test_line_count = 0 cache-tree.out
+'
+
 test_done