diff --git a/src/basic/fileio.c b/src/basic/fileio.c
index cd6f2f7a77..16f36359eb 100644
--- a/src/basic/fileio.c
+++ b/src/basic/fileio.c
@@ -404,7 +404,10 @@ int read_virtual_file(const char *filename, size_t max_size, char **ret_contents
 
                 /* Be prepared for files from /proc which generally report a file size of 0. */
                 assert_cc(READ_FULL_BYTES_MAX < SSIZE_MAX);
-                if (st.st_size > 0) {
+                if (st.st_size > 0 && n_retries > 1) {
+                        /* Let's use the file size if we have more than 1 attempt left. On the last attempt
+                         * we'll ignore the file size */
+
                         if (st.st_size > SSIZE_MAX) { /* Avoid overflow with 32-bit size_t and 64-bit off_t. */
 
                                 if (max_size == SIZE_MAX)
@@ -427,6 +430,7 @@ int read_virtual_file(const char *filename, size_t max_size, char **ret_contents
                 buf = malloc(size + 1);
                 if (!buf)
                         return -ENOMEM;
+
                 /* Use a bigger allocation if we got it anyway, but not more than the limit. */
                 size = MIN3(MALLOC_SIZEOF_SAFE(buf) - 1, max_size, READ_FULL_BYTES_MAX);
 
@@ -457,20 +461,13 @@ int read_virtual_file(const char *filename, size_t max_size, char **ret_contents
                         break;
                 }
 
-                /* Hmm... either we read too few bytes from /proc or less likely the content
-                 * of the file might have been changed (and is now bigger) while we were
-                 * processing, let's try again either with a bigger guessed size or the new
-                 * file size. */
+                /* We have no further attempts left? Then the file is apparently larger than our limits. Give up. */
+                if (n_retries <= 0)
+                        return -EFBIG;
 
-                if (n_retries <= 0) {
-                        if (max_size == SIZE_MAX)
-                                return st.st_size > 0 ? -EIO : -EFBIG;
-
-                        /* Accept a short read, but truncate it appropropriately. */
-                        n = MIN(n, max_size);
-                        truncated = true;
-                        break;
-                }
+                /* Hmm... either we read too few bytes from /proc or less likely the content of the file
+                 * might have been changed (and is now bigger) while we were processing, let's try again
+                 * either with the new file size. */
 
                 if (lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_SET) < 0)
                         return -errno;