diff --git a/src/oom/oomd-manager.c b/src/oom/oomd-manager.c
index fad1fb0d452..085fc6487fd 100644
--- a/src/oom/oomd-manager.c
+++ b/src/oom/oomd-manager.c
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ static int process_managed_oom_reply(
                                 continue;
                 }
 
-                ret = oomd_insert_cgroup_context(NULL, monitor_hm, empty_to_root(reply.path));
+                ret = oomd_insert_cgroup_context(NULL, monitor_hm, reply.path);
                 if (ret == -ENOMEM) {
                         r = ret;
                         goto finish;
diff --git a/src/oom/oomd-util.c b/src/oom/oomd-util.c
index 82bc9e25291..d8dbb750139 100644
--- a/src/oom/oomd-util.c
+++ b/src/oom/oomd-util.c
@@ -390,10 +390,14 @@ int oomd_insert_cgroup_context(Hashmap *old_h, Hashmap *new_h, const char *path)
         assert(new_h);
         assert(path);
 
+        path = empty_to_root(path);
+
         r = oomd_cgroup_context_acquire(path, &curr_ctx);
         if (r < 0)
                 return log_debug_errno(r, "Failed to get OomdCGroupContext for %s: %m", path);
 
+        assert_se(streq(path, curr_ctx->path));
+
         old_ctx = hashmap_get(old_h, path);
         if (old_ctx) {
                 curr_ctx->last_pgscan = old_ctx->pgscan;