diff --git a/drivers/nvmem/core.c b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
index f4af8e5fcd94..676607cb01bb 100644
--- a/drivers/nvmem/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
@@ -825,7 +825,7 @@ static int __nvmem_cell_read(struct nvmem_device *nvmem,
 		return rc;
 
 	/* shift bits in-place */
-	if (cell->bit_offset || cell->bit_offset)
+	if (cell->bit_offset || cell->nbits)
 		nvmem_shift_read_buffer_in_place(cell, buf);
 
 	*len = cell->bytes;