diff --git a/fs/nilfs2/inode.c b/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
index 8e1afa39a62e176afc3fb77294cc4a2a2f5abb8c..d8bf86ec6d8d3b6aecfe451f624f2d8d0786ab4e 100644
--- a/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
+++ b/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
@@ -614,8 +614,14 @@ struct inode *nilfs_iget(struct super_block *sb, struct nilfs_root *root,
 	inode = nilfs_iget_locked(sb, root, ino);
 	if (unlikely(!inode))
 		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
-	if (!(inode->i_state & I_NEW))
+
+	if (!(inode->i_state & I_NEW)) {
+		if (!inode->i_nlink) {
+			iput(inode);
+			return ERR_PTR(-ESTALE);
+		}
 		return inode;
+	}
 
 	err = __nilfs_read_inode(sb, root, ino, inode);
 	if (unlikely(err)) {
diff --git a/fs/nilfs2/namei.c b/fs/nilfs2/namei.c
index 7f71aa354f364300fb11ffe8a60bd3d06427c6b7..ac0adeb58e410410c4550b957881e8e3ca767de0 100644
--- a/fs/nilfs2/namei.c
+++ b/fs/nilfs2/namei.c
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ nilfs_lookup(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry, unsigned int flags)
 		inode = NULL;
 	} else {
 		inode = nilfs_iget(dir->i_sb, NILFS_I(dir)->i_root, ino);
+		if (inode == ERR_PTR(-ESTALE)) {
+			nilfs_error(dir->i_sb,
+					"deleted inode referenced: %lu", ino);
+			return ERR_PTR(-EIO);
+		}
 	}
 
 	return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry);