diff --git a/rerere.c b/rerere.c
index 2fd3181f7b..7aa149e849 100644
--- a/rerere.c
+++ b/rerere.c
@@ -521,7 +521,7 @@ static int check_one_conflict(int i, int *type)
 	}
 
 	*type = PUNTED;
-	while (ce_stage(active_cache[i]) == 1)
+	while (i < active_nr && ce_stage(active_cache[i]) == 1)
 		i++;
 
 	/* Only handle regular files with both stages #2 and #3 */
diff --git a/t/t4200-rerere.sh b/t/t4200-rerere.sh
index 428b3c1e9e..55b7750ade 100755
--- a/t/t4200-rerere.sh
+++ b/t/t4200-rerere.sh
@@ -642,4 +642,33 @@ test_expect_success 'rerere with inner conflict markers' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'setup simple stage 1 handling' '
+	test_create_repo stage_1_handling &&
+	(
+		cd stage_1_handling &&
+
+		test_seq 1 10 >original &&
+		git add original &&
+		git commit -m original &&
+
+		git checkout -b A master &&
+		git mv original A &&
+		git commit -m "rename to A" &&
+
+		git checkout -b B master &&
+		git mv original B &&
+		git commit -m "rename to B"
+	)
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'test simple stage 1 handling' '
+	(
+		cd stage_1_handling &&
+
+		git config rerere.enabled true &&
+		git checkout A^0 &&
+		test_must_fail git merge B^0
+	)
+'
+
 test_done