diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst-rsrc/org/eclipse/jgit/test/resources/dircache.testRemovedSubtree b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst-rsrc/org/eclipse/jgit/test/resources/dircache.testRemovedSubtree
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..01aa24d11
Binary files /dev/null and b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst-rsrc/org/eclipse/jgit/test/resources/dircache.testRemovedSubtree differ
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheIteratorTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheIteratorTest.java
index 99acd528c..bc84753f9 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheIteratorTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheIteratorTest.java
@@ -43,12 +43,15 @@
 
 package org.eclipse.jgit.dircache;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.util.Collections;
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.FileMode;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.RepositoryTestCase;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.treewalk.TreeWalk;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.treewalk.filter.PathFilterGroup;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FS;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.util.JGitTestUtil;
 
 public class DirCacheIteratorTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	public void testEmptyTree_NoTreeWalk() throws Exception {
@@ -269,4 +272,26 @@ public void testTwoLevelSubtree_FilterPath() throws Exception {
 			assertFalse(tw.next());
 		}
 	}
+
+	public void testRemovedSubtree() throws Exception {
+		final File path = JGitTestUtil
+				.getTestResourceFile("dircache.testRemovedSubtree");
+
+		final DirCache dc = DirCache.read(path, FS.DETECTED);
+		assertEquals(2, dc.getEntryCount());
+
+		final TreeWalk tw = new TreeWalk(db);
+		tw.setRecursive(true);
+		tw.addTree(new DirCacheIterator(dc));
+
+		assertTrue(tw.next());
+		assertEquals("a/a", tw.getPathString());
+		assertSame(FileMode.REGULAR_FILE, tw.getFileMode(0));
+
+		assertTrue(tw.next());
+		assertEquals("q", tw.getPathString());
+		assertSame(FileMode.REGULAR_FILE, tw.getFileMode(0));
+
+		assertFalse(tw.next());
+	}
 }
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheTree.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheTree.java
index 2995e17c9..c71c91332 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheTree.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/dircache/DirCacheTree.java
@@ -484,14 +484,11 @@ void validate(final DirCacheEntry[] cache, final int cCnt, int cIdx,
 			stIdx++;
 		}
 
-		if (stIdx < childCnt) {
-			// None of our remaining children can be in this tree
-			// as the current cache entry is after our own name.
-			//
-			final DirCacheTree[] dct = new DirCacheTree[stIdx];
-			System.arraycopy(children, 0, dct, 0, stIdx);
-			children = dct;
-		}
+		// None of our remaining children can be in this tree
+		// as the current cache entry is after our own name.
+		//
+		while (stIdx < childCnt)
+			removeChild(childCnt - 1);
 	}
 
 	private void insertChild(final int stIdx, final DirCacheTree st) {