diff --git a/builtin/fsck.c b/builtin/fsck.c
index 38922a369d..a7592ef5ff 100644
--- a/builtin/fsck.c
+++ b/builtin/fsck.c
@@ -439,9 +439,6 @@ static int fsck_obj(struct object *obj, void *buffer, unsigned long size)
 out:
 	if (obj->type == OBJ_TREE)
 		free_tree_buffer((struct tree *)obj);
-	if (obj->type == OBJ_COMMIT)
-		free_commit_buffer(the_repository->parsed_objects,
-				   (struct commit *)obj);
 	return err;
 }
 
diff --git a/object.c b/object.c
index 588b8156f1..868e623719 100644
--- a/object.c
+++ b/object.c
@@ -233,7 +233,8 @@ struct object *parse_object_buffer(struct repository *r, const struct object_id
 		if (commit) {
 			if (parse_commit_buffer(r, commit, buffer, size, 1))
 				return NULL;
-			if (!get_cached_commit_buffer(r, commit, NULL)) {
+			if (save_commit_buffer &&
+			    !get_cached_commit_buffer(r, commit, NULL)) {
 				set_commit_buffer(r, commit, buffer, size);
 				*eaten_p = 1;
 			}