diff --git a/src/sparse.c b/src/sparse.c
index d3f71649..1d18b20d 100644
--- a/src/sparse.c
+++ b/src/sparse.c
@@ -217,6 +217,8 @@ sparse_scan_file (struct tar_sparse_file *file)
   if (!lseek_or_error (file, 0))
     return false;
 
+  st->archive_file_size = 0;
+  
   if (!tar_sparse_scan (file, scan_begin, NULL))
     return false;