diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
index fbbb40f..6169f1e 100644
--- a/builtin/commit.c
+++ b/builtin/commit.c
@@ -946,24 +946,14 @@
 
 static const char *read_commit_message(const char *name)
 {
-	const char *out_enc, *out;
+	const char *out_enc;
 	struct commit *commit;
 
 	commit = lookup_commit_reference_by_name(name);
 	if (!commit)
 		die(_("could not lookup commit %s"), name);
 	out_enc = get_commit_output_encoding();
-	out = logmsg_reencode(commit, out_enc);
-
-	/*
-	 * If we failed to reencode the buffer, just copy it
-	 * byte for byte so the user can try to fix it up.
-	 * This also handles the case where input and output
-	 * encodings are identical.
-	 */
-	if (out == NULL)
-		out = commit->buffer;
-	return out;
+	return logmsg_reencode(commit, out_enc);
 }
 
 static int parse_and_validate_options(int argc, const char *argv[],