diff --git a/src/nspawn/nspawn-patch-uid.c b/src/nspawn/nspawn-patch-uid.c
index 9f36931581..21a1707312 100644
--- a/src/nspawn/nspawn-patch-uid.c
+++ b/src/nspawn/nspawn-patch-uid.c
@@ -181,7 +181,9 @@ static int patch_acls(int fd, const char *name, const struct stat *st, uid_t shi
 
         if (S_ISDIR(st->st_mode)) {
                 acl_free(acl);
-                acl_free(shifted);
+
+                if (shifted)
+                        acl_free(shifted);
 
                 acl = shifted = NULL;