diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
index 5e55af3e9d5f1..621b1964ea6f3 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
@@ -1383,7 +1383,9 @@ chk_rst_nr()
 	count=$(get_counter ${ns_tx} "MPTcpExtMPRstTx")
 	if [ -z "$count" ]; then
 		echo -n "[skip]"
-	elif [ $count -lt $rst_tx ]; then
+	# accept more rst than expected except if we don't expect any
+	elif { [ $rst_tx -ne 0 ] && [ $count -lt $rst_tx ]; } ||
+	     { [ $rst_tx -eq 0 ] && [ $count -ne 0 ]; }; then
 		echo "[fail] got $count MP_RST[s] TX expected $rst_tx"
 		fail_test
 	else
@@ -1394,7 +1396,9 @@ chk_rst_nr()
 	count=$(get_counter ${ns_rx} "MPTcpExtMPRstRx")
 	if [ -z "$count" ]; then
 		echo -n "[skip]"
-	elif [ "$count" -lt "$rst_rx" ]; then
+	# accept more rst than expected except if we don't expect any
+	elif { [ $rst_rx -ne 0 ] && [ $count -lt $rst_rx ]; } ||
+	     { [ $rst_rx -eq 0 ] && [ $count -ne 0 ]; }; then
 		echo "[fail] got $count MP_RST[s] RX expected $rst_rx"
 		fail_test
 	else