diff --git a/src/basic/chase.c b/src/basic/chase.c
index 3d423e4f880..e3ee01271e1 100644
--- a/src/basic/chase.c
+++ b/src/basic/chase.c
@@ -100,9 +100,6 @@ int chaseat(
         if ((flags & CHASE_STEP))
                 assert(!ret_fd);
 
-        if ((flags & CHASE_EXTRACT_FILENAME))
-                assert(ret_path);
-
         if (isempty(path))
                 path = ".";