diff --git a/lib/libc/db/hash/hash.c b/lib/libc/db/hash/hash.c
index 76da99c055a..ea6ff4731ed 100644
--- a/lib/libc/db/hash/hash.c
+++ b/lib/libc/db/hash/hash.c
@@ -122,7 +122,8 @@ __hash_open(file, flags, mode, info, dflags)
 
 	new_table = 0;
 	if (!file || (flags & O_TRUNC) ||
-	    (stat(file, &statbuf) && (errno == ENOENT))) {
+	    (stat(file, &statbuf) && (errno == ENOENT)) ||
+	    statbuf.st_size == 0) {
 		if (errno == ENOENT)
 			errno = 0; /* Just in case someone looks at errno */
 		new_table = 1;