diff --git a/[refs] b/[refs]
index 06e357cf0fd1..39cf90f17075 100644
--- a/[refs]
+++ b/[refs]
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ---
-refs/heads/master: 45f902178022439795a21e14f886b8ccb49a75d2
+refs/heads/master: de18f3b2d68c1f3481839be760a5ff93f6a9a5e5
diff --git a/trunk/fs/ext3/namei.c b/trunk/fs/ext3/namei.c
index bd87a6077536..6ddaa0a42b24 100644
--- a/trunk/fs/ext3/namei.c
+++ b/trunk/fs/ext3/namei.c
@@ -1047,8 +1047,16 @@ static struct dentry *ext3_lookup(struct inode * dir, struct dentry *dentry, str
 			return ERR_PTR(-EIO);
 		}
 		inode = ext3_iget(dir->i_sb, ino);
-		if (IS_ERR(inode))
-			return ERR_CAST(inode);
+		if (unlikely(IS_ERR(inode))) {
+			if (PTR_ERR(inode) == -ESTALE) {
+				ext3_error(dir->i_sb, __func__,
+						"deleted inode referenced: %lu",
+						ino);
+				return ERR_PTR(-EIO);
+			} else {
+				return ERR_CAST(inode);
+			}
+		}
 	}
 	return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry);
 }