diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
index 3a16b4a36d9a..822b1e9c3ba2 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
@@ -5228,7 +5228,15 @@ static int ocfs2_divide_xattr_bucket(struct inode *inode,
 	start = ocfs2_xattr_find_divide_pos(xh);
 
 	if (start == count) {
-		xe = &xh->xh_entries[start-1];
+		/*
+		 * start == count means every entry shares one hash, so the
+		 * first of them carries it too.  An empty bucket has no
+		 * entries[start - 1], but its entries[0] still carries the
+		 * bucket key: either the hash ocfs2_xa_remove_entry()
+		 * deliberately leaves behind, or the sentinel a previous
+		 * divide wrote.
+		 */
+		xe = &xh->xh_entries[0];
 
 		/*
 		 * initialized a new empty bucket here.