diff --git a/builtin/rm.c b/builtin/rm.c
index 90cbe896c9..bf4a443e13 100644
--- a/builtin/rm.c
+++ b/builtin/rm.c
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ int cmd_rm(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	parse_pathspec(&pathspec, 0,
 		       PATHSPEC_PREFER_CWD,
 		       prefix, argv);
-	refresh_index(&the_index, REFRESH_QUIET, &pathspec, NULL, NULL);
+	refresh_index(&the_index, REFRESH_QUIET|REFRESH_UNMERGED, &pathspec, NULL, NULL);
 
 	seen = xcalloc(pathspec.nr, 1);
 
diff --git a/t/t3600-rm.sh b/t/t3600-rm.sh
index 85ae7dc1e4..66282a720e 100755
--- a/t/t3600-rm.sh
+++ b/t/t3600-rm.sh
@@ -252,6 +252,19 @@ test_expect_success 'choking "git rm" should not let it die with cruft' '
 	test_path_is_missing .git/index.lock
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'Resolving by removal is not a warning-worthy event' '
+	git reset -q --hard &&
+	test_when_finished "rm -f .git/index.lock msg && git reset -q --hard" &&
+	blob=$(echo blob | git hash-object -w --stdin) &&
+	for stage in 1 2 3
+	do
+		echo "100644 $blob $stage	blob"
+	done | git update-index --index-info &&
+	git rm blob >msg 2>&1 &&
+	test_i18ngrep ! "needs merge" msg &&
+	test_must_fail git ls-files -s --error-unmatch blob
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'rm removes subdirectories recursively' '
 	mkdir -p dir/subdir/subsubdir &&
 	echo content >dir/subdir/subsubdir/file &&