diff --git a/fs/btrfs/send.c b/fs/btrfs/send.c
index f88623bbc491..5c59b9abedcd 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/send.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/send.c
@@ -2065,7 +2065,7 @@ static int will_overwrite_ref(struct send_ctx *sctx, u64 dir, u64 dir_gen,
 
 	ret = is_inode_existent(sctx, dir, dir_gen, NULL, &parent_root_dir_gen);
 	if (ret <= 0)
-		return 0;
+		return ret;
 
 	/*
 	 * If we have a parent root we need to verify that the parent dir was