diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/StringUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/StringUtils.java
index 31a572a54..c169e0a62 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/StringUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/StringUtils.java
@@ -7585,6 +7585,10 @@ distance is O(nm), but a bound of k allows us to reduce it to O(km) time by only
         } else if (m == 0) {
             return n <= threshold ? n : -1;
         }
+        // no need to calculate the distance if the length difference is greater than the threshold
+        else if (Math.abs(n - m) > threshold) {
+            return -1;
+        }
 
         if (n > m) {
             // swap the two strings to consume less memory