diff --git a/sch2fig/git-file.c b/sch2fig/git-file.c
index 9e0cb0f..098f136 100644
--- a/sch2fig/git-file.c
+++ b/sch2fig/git-file.c
@@ -210,27 +210,20 @@ static char *canonical_path_into_repo(const char *repo_dir, const char *path)
 	if (verbose > 1)
 		fprintf(stderr, "full object path \"%s\"\n", tmp);
 
-	/* find which part of out path is inside the repo */
+	/* find which part of our path is inside the repo */
 
 	end = tail = strchr(tmp, 0);
 	while (1) {
 		if (verbose > 2)
 			fprintf(stderr, "trying \"%s\" tail \"%s\"\n",
 			    tmp, tail);
-		/*
-		 * This should never fail, unless someone has been changing
-		 * things while we were searching.
-		 */
-		if (stat(tmp, &path_st) < 0) {
-			perror(tmp);
-			exit(1);
-		}
 
-		if (path_st.st_dev == repo_st.st_dev &&
+		if (stat(tmp, &path_st) == 0 &&
+		    path_st.st_dev == repo_st.st_dev &&
 		    path_st.st_ino == repo_st.st_ino)
 			break;
 
-		/* another "this cannot happen" problem */
+		/* "this cannot happen" */
 		if (tail == tmp) {
 			fprintf(stderr,
 			    "divergent paths:\nrepo \"%s\"\nobject \"%s\"\n",