diff --git a/src/libfetchers/git.cc b/src/libfetchers/git.cc
index 07cbc781c..2817fde23 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/git.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/git.cc
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ std::pair<StorePath, Input> fetchFromWorkdir(ref<Store> store, Input & input, co
         if (S_ISDIR(st.st_mode)) {
             auto prefix = file + "/";
             auto i = files.lower_bound(prefix);
-            return i != files.end() && (*i).starts_with(prefix);
+            return (i != files.end() && (*i).starts_with(prefix)) || files.count(file);
         }
 
         return files.count(file);
diff --git a/tests/functional/fetchGitSubmodules.sh b/tests/functional/fetchGitSubmodules.sh
index df81232e5..3ff6697fd 100644
--- a/tests/functional/fetchGitSubmodules.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/fetchGitSubmodules.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ initGitRepo $rootRepo
 git -C $rootRepo submodule init
 git -C $rootRepo submodule add $subRepo sub
 git -C $rootRepo add sub
+r0=$(nix eval --impure --raw --expr "(builtins.fetchGit { url = file://$rootRepo; }).outPath")
 git -C $rootRepo commit -m "Add submodule"
 
 rev=$(git -C $rootRepo rev-parse HEAD)
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ r1=$(nix eval --raw --expr "(builtins.fetchGit { url = file://$rootRepo; rev = \
 r2=$(nix eval --raw --expr "(builtins.fetchGit { url = file://$rootRepo; rev = \"$rev\"; submodules = false; }).outPath")
 r3=$(nix eval --raw --expr "(builtins.fetchGit { url = file://$rootRepo; rev = \"$rev\"; submodules = true; }).outPath")
 
+[[ $r0 == $r1 ]] # verify that unfetched submodules result in empty directories in dirty mode too
 [[ $r1 == $r2 ]]
 [[ $r2 != $r3 ]]