diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
index 09048742aa8..1515c8469c1 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
@@ -141,6 +141,9 @@ public final class SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper extends FilterDirectoryRead
       bits.set(0, reader.maxDoc());
     }
     int numSoftDeletes = PendingSoftDeletes.applySoftDeletes(iterator, bits);
+    if (numSoftDeletes == 0) {
+      return reader;
+    }
     int numDeletes = reader.numDeletedDocs() + numSoftDeletes;
     int numDocs = reader.maxDoc() - numDeletes;
     assert assertDocCounts(numDocs, numSoftDeletes, reader);
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
index d1adaeb0e9b..2098f57910d 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestSoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper.java
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 
 package org.apache.lucene.index;
 
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
+
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Set;
@@ -27,6 +29,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.document.NumericDocValuesField;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.StringField;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.MatchAllDocsQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.MatchNoDocsQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.tests.util.LuceneTestCase;
@@ -264,4 +267,53 @@ public class TestSoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper extends LuceneTestCase {
     assertEquals(1, leafCalled.get());
     IOUtils.close(reader, writer, dir);
   }
+
+  public void testAvoidWrappingReadersWithoutSoftDeletes() throws Exception {
+    IndexWriterConfig iwc = newIndexWriterConfig();
+    String softDeletesField = "soft_deletes";
+    iwc.setSoftDeletesField(softDeletesField);
+    MergePolicy mergePolicy = iwc.mergePolicy;
+    iwc.setMergePolicy(
+        new SoftDeletesRetentionMergePolicy(softDeletesField, MatchAllDocsQuery::new, mergePolicy));
+    try (Directory dir = newDirectory();
+        IndexWriter writer = new IndexWriter(dir, iwc)) {
+      int numDocs = 1 + random().nextInt(10);
+      for (int i = 0; i < numDocs; i++) {
+        Document doc = new Document();
+        String docId = Integer.toString(i);
+        doc.add(new StringField("id", docId, Field.Store.YES));
+        writer.addDocument(doc);
+      }
+      int numDeletes = 1 + random().nextInt(5);
+      for (int i = 0; i < numDeletes; i++) {
+        Document doc = new Document();
+        String docId = Integer.toString(random().nextInt(numDocs));
+        doc.add(new StringField("id", docId, Field.Store.YES));
+        writer.softUpdateDocument(
+            new Term("id", docId), doc, new NumericDocValuesField(softDeletesField, 0));
+      }
+      writer.flush();
+      try (DirectoryReader reader = DirectoryReader.open(writer)) {
+        SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper wrapped =
+            new SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper(reader, softDeletesField);
+        assertEquals(numDocs, wrapped.numDocs());
+        assertEquals(numDeletes, wrapped.numDeletedDocs());
+      }
+      writer
+          .getConfig()
+          .setMergePolicy(
+              new SoftDeletesRetentionMergePolicy(
+                  softDeletesField, MatchNoDocsQuery::new, mergePolicy));
+      writer.forceMerge(1);
+      try (DirectoryReader reader = DirectoryReader.open(writer)) {
+        SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper wrapped =
+            new SoftDeletesDirectoryReaderWrapper(reader, softDeletesField);
+        assertEquals(numDocs, wrapped.numDocs());
+        assertEquals(0, wrapped.numDeletedDocs());
+        for (LeafReaderContext leaf : wrapped.leaves()) {
+          assertThat(leaf.reader(), instanceOf(SegmentReader.class));
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }