diff --git a/builtin-blame.c b/builtin-blame.c
index 682edba9e..3442d282a 100644
--- a/builtin-blame.c
+++ b/builtin-blame.c
@@ -2375,7 +2375,7 @@ int cmd_blame(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		die("reading graft file %s failed: %s",
 		    revs_file, strerror(errno));
 
-	if (!no_mailmap && !access(".mailmap", R_OK))
+	if (!no_mailmap)
 		read_mailmap(&mailmap, ".mailmap", NULL);
 
 	assign_blame(&sb, &revs, opt);
diff --git a/builtin-shortlog.c b/builtin-shortlog.c
index b57a88a6b..8d3f742d4 100644
--- a/builtin-shortlog.c
+++ b/builtin-shortlog.c
@@ -283,8 +283,7 @@ int cmd_shortlog(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (argc > 1)
 		die ("unrecognized argument: %s", argv[1]);
 
-	if (!access(".mailmap", R_OK))
-		read_mailmap(&mailmap, ".mailmap", &common_repo_prefix);
+	read_mailmap(&mailmap, ".mailmap", &common_repo_prefix);
 
 	if (rev.pending.nr == 0) {
 		if (isatty(0))