diff --git a/src/nix/prefetch.cc b/src/nix/prefetch.cc
index 5e890f3c8ce..c6e60a53be6 100644
--- a/src/nix/prefetch.cc
+++ b/src/nix/prefetch.cc
@@ -114,14 +114,15 @@ std::tuple<StorePath, Hash> prefetchFile(
             createDirs(unpacked);
             unpackTarfile(tmpFile.string(), unpacked);
 
+            auto entries = std::filesystem::directory_iterator{unpacked};
             /* If the archive unpacks to a single file/directory, then use
                that as the top-level. */
-            auto entries = std::filesystem::directory_iterator{unpacked};
-            auto file_count = std::distance(entries, std::filesystem::directory_iterator{});
-            if (file_count == 1)
-                tmpFile = entries->path();
-            else
+            tmpFile = entries->path();
+            auto fileCount = std::distance(entries, std::filesystem::directory_iterator{});
+            if (fileCount != 1) {
+                /* otherwise, use the directory itself */
                 tmpFile = unpacked;
+            }
         }
 
         Activity act(*logger, lvlChatty, actUnknown,
diff --git a/tests/functional/tarball.sh b/tests/functional/tarball.sh
index a2824cd1239..f999b7a10cb 100755
--- a/tests/functional/tarball.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/tarball.sh
@@ -54,6 +54,18 @@ test_tarball() {
     # with the content-addressing
     (! nix-instantiate --eval -E "fetchTree { type = \"tarball\"; url = file://$tarball; narHash = \"$hash\"; name = \"foo\"; }")
 
+    store_path=$(nix store prefetch-file --json "file://$tarball" | jq -r .storePath)
+    if ! cmp -s "$store_path" "$tarball"; then
+        echo "prefetched tarball differs from original: $store_path vs $tarball" >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    store_path2=$(nix store prefetch-file --json --unpack "file://$tarball" | jq -r .storePath)
+    diff_output=$(diff -r "$store_path2" "$tarroot")
+    if [ -n "$diff_output" ]; then
+        echo "prefetched tarball differs from original: $store_path2 vs $tarroot" >&2
+        echo "$diff_output"
+        exit 1
+    fi
 }
 
 test_tarball '' cat