diff --git a/object-file.c b/object-file.c
index 4c258703a0..9213a51721 100644
--- a/object-file.c
+++ b/object-file.c
@@ -2533,6 +2533,8 @@ int read_loose_object(const char *path,
 	char hdr[MAX_HEADER_LEN];
 	unsigned long *size = oi->sizep;
 
+	*contents = NULL;
+
 	map = map_loose_object_1(the_repository, path, NULL, &mapsize);
 	if (!map) {
 		error_errno(_("unable to mmap %s"), path);
diff --git a/t/t1050-large.sh b/t/t1050-large.sh
index 4bab6a513c..6bc1d76fb1 100755
--- a/t/t1050-large.sh
+++ b/t/t1050-large.sh
@@ -17,6 +17,14 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 	export GIT_ALLOC_LIMIT
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'enter "large" codepath, with small core.bigFileThreshold' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+
+	git init --bare repo &&
+	echo large | git -C repo hash-object -w --stdin &&
+	git -C repo -c core.bigfilethreshold=4 fsck
+'
+
 # add a large file with different settings
 while read expect config
 do