diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-pull.c b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-pull.c
index 4d8b6138..a6272b17 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-pull.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-pull.c
@@ -448,12 +448,7 @@ scan_dirtree_object (OtPullData   *pull_data,
   files_variant = g_variant_get_child_value (tree, 0);
   dirs_variant = g_variant_get_child_value (tree, 1);
 
-  /* Skip files if we're traversing a request only directory */
-  if (pull_data->dir)
-    n = 0;
-  else
-    n = g_variant_n_children (files_variant);
-
+  n = g_variant_n_children (files_variant);
   for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
     {
       const char *filename;
@@ -466,6 +461,14 @@ scan_dirtree_object (OtPullData   *pull_data,
       if (!ot_util_filename_validate (filename, error))
         goto out;
 
+      /* Skip files if we're traversing a request only directory, unless it exactly
+       * matches the path */
+      if (pull_data->dir &&
+          /* Should always an initial slash, we assert it in scan_dirtree_object */
+          pull_data->dir[0] == '/' &&
+          strcmp (pull_data->dir+1, filename) != 0)
+        continue;
+
       file_checksum = ostree_checksum_from_bytes_v (csum);
 
       if (!ostree_repo_has_object (pull_data->repo, OSTREE_OBJECT_TYPE_FILE, file_checksum,
diff --git a/tests/test-pull-subpath.sh b/tests/test-pull-subpath.sh
index 8d20341e..b0bf4839 100755
--- a/tests/test-pull-subpath.sh
+++ b/tests/test-pull-subpath.sh
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ assert_file_has_content err.txt "Couldn't find file object"
 rev=$(${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=repo rev-parse origin:main)
 assert_has_file repo/state/${rev}.commitpartial
 
+# Test pulling a file, not a dir
+${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=repo pull --subpath=/firstfile origin main
+${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=repo ls origin:main /firstfile
+
 ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=repo pull origin main
 assert_not_has_file repo/state/${rev}.commitpartial
 ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=repo fsck