diff --git a/fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c b/fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c
index 105576daca4a..798f1253141a 100644
--- a/fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c
+++ b/fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c
@@ -724,8 +724,10 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE3(inotify_add_watch, int, fd, const char __user *, pathname,
 		return -EBADF;
 
 	/* IN_MASK_ADD and IN_MASK_CREATE don't make sense together */
-	if (unlikely((mask & IN_MASK_ADD) && (mask & IN_MASK_CREATE)))
-		return -EINVAL;
+	if (unlikely((mask & IN_MASK_ADD) && (mask & IN_MASK_CREATE))) {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+		goto fput_and_out;
+	}
 
 	/* verify that this is indeed an inotify instance */
 	if (unlikely(f.file->f_op != &inotify_fops)) {