diff --git a/commit-graph.c b/commit-graph.c
index f2888c203b..6aa6998ecd 100644
--- a/commit-graph.c
+++ b/commit-graph.c
@@ -843,7 +843,9 @@ static void write_graph_chunk_data(struct hashfile *f, int hash_len,
 		uint32_t packedDate[2];
 		display_progress(ctx->progress, ++ctx->progress_cnt);
 
-		parse_commit_no_graph(*list);
+		if (parse_commit_no_graph(*list))
+			die(_("unable to parse commit %s"),
+				oid_to_hex(&(*list)->object.oid));
 		hashwrite(f, get_commit_tree_oid(*list)->hash, hash_len);
 
 		parent = (*list)->parents;
diff --git a/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh b/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
index c855f81930..abde8d4e90 100755
--- a/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
+++ b/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ test_expect_success 'get_commit_tree_in_graph works for non-the_repository' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'corrupt commit-graph write (broken parent)' '
+test_expect_success 'corrupt commit-graph write (broken parent)' '
 	rm -rf repo &&
 	git init repo &&
 	(