diff --git a/builtin/update-ref.c b/builtin/update-ref.c
index 86d006d363..0b2ecf41ae 100644
--- a/builtin/update-ref.c
+++ b/builtin/update-ref.c
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ int cmd_update_ref(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		 * For purposes of backwards compatibility, we treat
 		 * NULL_SHA1 as "don't care" here:
 		 */
-		return delete_ref(NULL, refname,
+		return delete_ref(msg, refname,
 				  (oldval && !is_null_sha1(oldsha1)) ? oldsha1 : NULL,
 				  flags);
 	else
diff --git a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
index b0ffc0b573..6e112fb5f9 100755
--- a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
@@ -85,6 +85,24 @@ test_expect_success "delete $m (by HEAD)" '
 '
 rm -f .git/$m
 
+test_expect_success "deleting current branch adds message to HEAD's log" '
+	git update-ref $m $A &&
+	git symbolic-ref HEAD $m &&
+	git update-ref -m delete-$m -d $m &&
+	! test -f .git/$m &&
+	grep "delete-$m$" .git/logs/HEAD
+'
+rm -f .git/$m
+
+test_expect_success "deleting by HEAD adds message to HEAD's log" '
+	git update-ref $m $A &&
+	git symbolic-ref HEAD $m &&
+	git update-ref -m delete-by-head -d HEAD &&
+	! test -f .git/$m &&
+	grep "delete-by-head$" .git/logs/HEAD
+'
+rm -f .git/$m
+
 test_expect_success 'update-ref does not create reflogs by default' '
 	test_when_finished "git update-ref -d $outside" &&
 	git update-ref $outside $A &&