diff --git a/gettext.c b/gettext.c
index 6b64d5c2e8..3eb20c5f95 100644
--- a/gettext.c
+++ b/gettext.c
@@ -163,6 +163,9 @@ void git_setup_gettext(void)
 	if (!podir)
 		podir = system_path(GIT_LOCALE_PATH);
 
+	if (!is_directory(podir))
+		return;
+
 	bindtextdomain("git", podir);
 	setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
 	setlocale(LC_TIME, "");