diff --git a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
index 9de612c1d6..5c520ac068 100644
--- a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
+++ b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
@@ -808,9 +808,14 @@ static int dir_cleanup(
 
                         log_action("Would remove", "Removing", "%s directory \"%s\"", sub_path);
                         if (!arg_dry_run &&
-                            unlinkat(dirfd(d), de->d_name, AT_REMOVEDIR) < 0 &&
-                            !IN_SET(errno, ENOENT, ENOTEMPTY))
-                                r = log_warning_errno(errno, "Failed to remove directory \"%s\", ignoring: %m", sub_path);
+                            unlinkat(dirfd(d), de->d_name, AT_REMOVEDIR) < 0) {
+                                if (errno == ENOTEMPTY)
+                                        continue;
+                                if (errno != ENOENT)
+                                        r = log_warning_errno(errno, "Failed to remove directory \"%s\", ignoring: %m", sub_path);
+                        }
+
+                        deleted = true;
 
                 } else {
                         _cleanup_close_ int fd = -EBADF; /* This file descriptor is defined here so that the
diff --git a/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.12.sh b/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.12.sh
index 44bb949825..1aa4faa0d3 100755
--- a/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.12.sh
+++ b/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.12.sh
@@ -204,3 +204,18 @@ test ! -d /tmp/ageby/d3
 
 # Cleanup the test directory (fail if not empty).
 rmdir /tmp/ageby
+
+# Removing an old child directory should restore the parent directory mtime.
+rm -rf /tmp/ageby-mtime
+mkdir -p /tmp/ageby-mtime/old-child
+touch --date "2020-01-01 00:00:00" /tmp/ageby-mtime/old-child /tmp/ageby-mtime
+before="$(stat -c %Y /tmp/ageby-mtime)"
+
+systemd-tmpfiles --clean - <<-EOF
+d /tmp/ageby-mtime - - - M:1s
+EOF
+
+after="$(stat -c %Y /tmp/ageby-mtime)"
+test "$before" = "$after"
+test ! -e /tmp/ageby-mtime/old-child
+rmdir /tmp/ageby-mtime