diff --git a/statinfo.c b/statinfo.c
index 17bb8966c33d6d..9367ca099cd114 100644
--- a/statinfo.c
+++ b/statinfo.c
@@ -2,6 +2,22 @@
 #include "environment.h"
 #include "statinfo.h"
 
+/*
+ * Munge st_size into an unsigned int.
+ */
+static unsigned int munge_st_size(off_t st_size) {
+	unsigned int sd_size = st_size;
+
+	/*
+	 * If the file is an exact multiple of 4 GiB, modify the value so it
+	 * doesn't get marked as racily clean (zero).
+	 */
+	if (!sd_size && st_size)
+		return 0x80000000;
+	else
+		return sd_size;
+}
+
 void fill_stat_data(struct stat_data *sd, struct stat *st)
 {
 	sd->sd_ctime.sec = (unsigned int)st->st_ctime;
@@ -12,7 +28,7 @@ void fill_stat_data(struct stat_data *sd, struct stat *st)
 	sd->sd_ino = st->st_ino;
 	sd->sd_uid = st->st_uid;
 	sd->sd_gid = st->st_gid;
-	sd->sd_size = st->st_size;
+	sd->sd_size = munge_st_size(st->st_size);
 }
 
 int match_stat_data(const struct stat_data *sd, struct stat *st)
@@ -51,7 +67,7 @@ int match_stat_data(const struct stat_data *sd, struct stat *st)
 			changed |= INODE_CHANGED;
 #endif
 
-	if (sd->sd_size != (unsigned int) st->st_size)
+	if (sd->sd_size != munge_st_size(st->st_size))
 		changed |= DATA_CHANGED;
 
 	return changed;
diff --git a/t/t7508-status.sh b/t/t7508-status.sh
index 6928fd89f5d887..6c46648e1128cc 100755
--- a/t/t7508-status.sh
+++ b/t/t7508-status.sh
@@ -1745,4 +1745,20 @@ test_expect_success 'slow status advice when core.untrackedCache true, and fsmon
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success EXPENSIVE 'status does not re-read unchanged 4 or 8 GiB file' '
+	(
+		mkdir large-file &&
+		cd large-file &&
+		# Files are 2 GiB, 4 GiB, and 8 GiB sparse files.
+		test-tool truncate file-a 0x080000000 &&
+		test-tool truncate file-b 0x100000000 &&
+		test-tool truncate file-c 0x200000000 &&
+		# This will be slow.
+		git add file-a file-b file-c &&
+		git commit -m "add large files" &&
+		git diff-index HEAD file-a file-b file-c >actual &&
+		test_must_be_empty actual
+	)
+'
+
 test_done