diff --git a/kmod/src/dir.c b/kmod/src/dir.c
index 21d29b6b..242a6f5c 100644
--- a/kmod/src/dir.c
+++ b/kmod/src/dir.c
@@ -1443,6 +1443,11 @@ static int item_d_ancestor(struct super_block *sb, u64 p1, u64 p2, u64 *p_ret)
 
 	*p_ret = 0;
 
+	if (p2 == SCOUTFS_ROOT_INO) {
+		ret = 0;
+		goto out;
+	}
+
 	ret = scoutfs_dir_get_backref_path(sb, p2, 0, 0, &list);
 	if (ret)
 		goto out;
diff --git a/tests/golden/basic-posix-consistency b/tests/golden/basic-posix-consistency
index 87951532..2c5fb6ab 100644
--- a/tests/golden/basic-posix-consistency
+++ b/tests/golden/basic-posix-consistency
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ four
 --- can't overwrite non-empty dir
 mv: cannot move ‘/mnt/test/test/basic-posix-consistency/dir/c/clobber’ to ‘/mnt/test/test/basic-posix-consistency/dir/a/dir’: Directory not empty
 --- can overwrite empty dir
+--- can rename into root
 == path resoluion
 == inode indexes match after syncing existing
 == inode indexes match after copying and syncing
diff --git a/tests/tests/basic-posix-consistency.sh b/tests/tests/basic-posix-consistency.sh
index 5571405a..8b466054 100644
--- a/tests/tests/basic-posix-consistency.sh
+++ b/tests/tests/basic-posix-consistency.sh
@@ -149,6 +149,10 @@ find "$T_D0/dir" -ls 2>&1 | t_filter_fs > "$T_TMP.0"
 find "$T_D1/dir" -ls 2>&1 | t_filter_fs > "$T_TMP.1"
 diff -u "$T_TMP.0" "$T_TMP.1"
 rm -rf "$T_D0/dir"
+echo "--- can rename into root"
+touch "$T_D0/rename-into-root"
+mv "$T_D0/rename-into-root" "$T_M0/"
+rm -f "$T_M0/rename-into-root"
 
 echo "== path resoluion"
 touch "$T_D0/file"