diff --git a/list-objects.c b/list-objects.c
index c41cc80db5..55595474fc 100644
--- a/list-objects.c
+++ b/list-objects.c
@@ -308,7 +308,9 @@ static void do_traverse(struct traversal_context *ctx)
 		 * an uninteresting boundary commit may not have its tree
 		 * parsed yet, but we are not going to show them anyway
 		 */
-		if (get_commit_tree(commit)) {
+		if (!ctx->revs->tree_objects)
+			; /* do not bother loading tree */
+		else if (get_commit_tree(commit)) {
 			struct tree *tree = get_commit_tree(commit);
 			tree->object.flags |= NOT_USER_GIVEN;
 			add_pending_tree(ctx->revs, tree);