diff --git a/t/unit-tests/t-reftable-record.c b/t/unit-tests/t-reftable-record.c
index 6ece76e416..1b52085f46 100644
--- a/t/unit-tests/t-reftable-record.c
+++ b/t/unit-tests/t-reftable-record.c
@@ -384,6 +384,7 @@ static void t_reftable_obj_record_roundtrip(void)
 		int n, m;
 		uint8_t extra;
 
+		check(!reftable_record_is_deletion(&in));
 		t_copy(&in);
 		reftable_record_key(&in, &key);
 		n = reftable_record_encode(&in, dest, GIT_SHA1_RAWSZ);