diff --git a/t/t3060-ls-files-with-tree.sh b/t/t3060-ls-files-with-tree.sh
index 61c1f53d1b..44f378ce41 100755
--- a/t/t3060-ls-files-with-tree.sh
+++ b/t/t3060-ls-files-with-tree.sh
@@ -18,22 +18,16 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 
 	echo file >expected &&
 	mkdir sub &&
-	bad= &&
 	for n in 0 1 2 3 4 5
 	do
 		for m in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
 		do
 			num=00$n$m &&
 			>sub/file-$num &&
-			echo file-$num >>expected || {
-				bad=t
-				break
-			}
-		done && test -z "$bad" || {
-			bad=t
-			break
-		}
-	done && test -z "$bad" &&
+			echo file-$num >>expected ||
+			return 1
+		done
+	done &&
 	git add . &&
 	git commit -m "add a bunch of files" &&
 
diff --git a/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh b/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
index a392f3d1d6..75cf3ff9bd 100755
--- a/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
+++ b/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ test_description='i18n settings and format-patch | am pipe'
 
 check_encoding () {
 	# Make sure characters are not corrupted
-	cnt="$1" header="$2" i=1 j=0 bad=0
+	cnt="$1" header="$2" i=1 j=0
 	while test "$i" -le $cnt
 	do
 		git format-patch --encoding=UTF-8 --stdout HEAD~$i..HEAD~$j |
@@ -20,14 +20,10 @@ check_encoding () {
 			grep "^encoding ISO8859-1" ;;
 		*)
 			grep "^encoding ISO8859-1"; test "$?" != 0 ;;
-		esac || {
-			bad=1
-			break
-		}
+		esac || return 1
 		j=$i
 		i=$(($i+1))
 	done
-	(exit $bad)
 }
 
 test_expect_success setup '