diff --git a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
index 75a997cffb3..909318ef899 100644
--- a/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
+++ b/lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
@@ -3549,7 +3549,7 @@ public class IndexWriter implements Closeable {
 
     assert mergeReader.numDeletedDocs() == delCount;
 
-    mergeReader.hasChanges = delCount >= 0;
+    mergeReader.hasChanges = delCount > 0;
   }
 
   /* FIXME if we want to support non-contiguous segment merges */