lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm | 2 ++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 414973c6dedd9b6137852695092877cc0b62e7a1..8c639082a4189f6ad91cb3e0ec3a2e9612bc41d2 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -211,6 +211,8 @@
 sub msg_by_smsg ($$;$) {
 	my ($self, $smsg, $ref) = @_;
 
+	return unless defined $smsg; # ghost
+
 	# backwards compat to fallback to msg_by_mid
 	# TODO: remove if we bump SCHEMA_VERSION in Search.pm:
 	defined(my $blob = $smsg->blob) or return msg_by_mid($self, $smsg->mid);