diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-ref-iteration.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-ref-iteration.txt
index aa1c50f181..02adfd45d3 100644
--- a/Documentation/technical/api-ref-iteration.txt
+++ b/Documentation/technical/api-ref-iteration.txt
@@ -50,10 +50,10 @@ submodules object database. You can do this by a code-snippet like
 this:
 
 	const char *path = "path/to/submodule"
-	if (!add_submodule_odb(path))
+	if (add_submodule_odb(path))
 		die("Error submodule '%s' not populated.", path);
 
-`add_submodule_odb()` will return an non-zero value on success. If you
+`add_submodule_odb()` will return zero on success. If you
 do not do this you will get an error for each ref that it does not point
 to a valid object.