diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 6b826b002e..8eaec5eca7 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1109,6 +1109,21 @@ int read_ref_at(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname,
 	refs_for_each_reflog_ent_reverse(refs, refname, read_ref_at_ent, &cb);
 
 	if (!cb.reccnt) {
+		if (cnt == 0) {
+			/*
+			 * The caller asked for ref@{0}, and we had no entries.
+			 * It's a bit subtle, but in practice all callers have
+			 * prepped the "oid" field with the current value of
+			 * the ref, which is the most reasonable fallback.
+			 *
+			 * We'll put dummy values into the out-parameters (so
+			 * they're not just uninitialized garbage), and the
+			 * caller can take our return value as a hint that
+			 * we did not find any such reflog.
+			 */
+			set_read_ref_cutoffs(&cb, 0, 0, "empty reflog");
+			return 1;
+		}
 		if (flags & GET_OID_QUIETLY)
 			exit(128);
 		else
diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index 303c5fac4d..37116ad2b2 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -440,7 +440,20 @@ int refs_create_reflog(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname,
 		       struct strbuf *err);
 int safe_create_reflog(const char *refname, struct strbuf *err);
 
-/** Reads log for the value of ref during at_time. **/
+/**
+ * Reads log for the value of ref during at_time (in which case "cnt" should be
+ * negative) or the reflog "cnt" entries from the top (in which case "at_time"
+ * should be 0).
+ *
+ * If we found the reflog entry in question, returns 0 (and details of the
+ * entry can be found in the out-parameters).
+ *
+ * If we ran out of reflog entries, the out-parameters are filled with the
+ * details of the oldest entry we did find, and the function returns 1. Note
+ * that there is one important special case here! If the reflog was empty
+ * and the caller asked for the 0-th cnt, we will return "1" but leave the
+ * "oid" field untouched.
+ **/
 int read_ref_at(struct ref_store *refs,
 		const char *refname, unsigned int flags,
 		timestamp_t at_time, int cnt,
diff --git a/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh b/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
index 370bf7137e..e841309d0e 100755
--- a/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
+++ b/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ test_expect_success '@{1} works with only one reflog entry' '
 	test_cmp_rev newbranch~ newbranch@{1}
 '
 
-test_expect_failure '@{0} works with empty reflog' '
+test_expect_success '@{0} works with empty reflog' '
 	git checkout -B newbranch main &&
 	git reflog expire --expire=now refs/heads/newbranch &&
 	test_cmp_rev newbranch newbranch@{0}
diff --git a/t/t3202-show-branch.sh b/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
index 35f35f8091..a1139f79e2 100755
--- a/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
+++ b/t/t3202-show-branch.sh
@@ -279,8 +279,8 @@ test_expect_success '--reflog shows reflog entries' '
 
 test_expect_success '--reflog handles missing reflog' '
 	git reflog expire --expire=now branch &&
-	test_must_fail git show-branch --reflog branch 2>err &&
-	grep "log .* is empty" err
+	git show-branch --reflog branch >actual &&
+	test_must_be_empty actual
 '
 
 test_done