diff --git a/apply.c b/apply.c
index 073d5f0451..d1ca6addeb 100644
--- a/apply.c
+++ b/apply.c
@@ -4939,10 +4939,10 @@ int apply_parse_options(int argc, const char **argv,
 	struct option builtin_apply_options[] = {
 		{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "exclude", state, N_("path"),
 			N_("don't apply changes matching the given path"),
-			0, apply_option_parse_exclude },
+			PARSE_OPT_NONEG, apply_option_parse_exclude },
 		{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "include", state, N_("path"),
 			N_("apply changes matching the given path"),
-			0, apply_option_parse_include },
+			PARSE_OPT_NONEG, apply_option_parse_include },
 		{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 'p', NULL, state, N_("num"),
 			N_("remove <num> leading slashes from traditional diff paths"),
 			0, apply_option_parse_p },