diff --git a/builtin/pack-objects.c b/builtin/pack-objects.c
index 02aa6ee480..eff9542f09 100644
--- a/builtin/pack-objects.c
+++ b/builtin/pack-objects.c
@@ -3469,9 +3469,9 @@ int cmd_pack_objects(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	read_replace_refs = 0;
 
-	sparse = git_env_bool("GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE", 0);
+	sparse = git_env_bool("GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE", -1);
 	prepare_repo_settings(the_repository);
-	if (!sparse && the_repository->settings.pack_use_sparse != -1)
+	if (sparse < 0)
 		sparse = the_repository->settings.pack_use_sparse;
 
 	reset_pack_idx_option(&pack_idx_opts);
diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 9afd61e3ca..99ebb18829 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -386,9 +386,9 @@ GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION=<n> exercises the index read/write code path
 for the index version specified.  Can be set to any valid version
 (currently 2, 3, or 4).
 
-GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE=<boolean> if enabled will default the pack-objects
-builtin to use the sparse object walk. This can still be overridden by
-the --no-sparse command-line argument.
+GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE=<boolean> if disabled will default the pack-objects
+builtin to use the non-sparse object walk. This can still be overridden by
+the --sparse command-line argument.
 
 GIT_TEST_PRELOAD_INDEX=<boolean> exercises the preload-index code path
 by overriding the minimum number of cache entries required per thread.
diff --git a/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh b/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
index 6e5d6bdb0a..a581eaf529 100755
--- a/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
+++ b/t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh
@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ test_expect_success 'non-sparse pack-objects' '
 
 # --sparse is enabled by default by pack.useSparse
 test_expect_success 'sparse pack-objects' '
+	GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE=-1 &&
 	git rev-parse			\
 		topic1			\
 		topic1^{tree}		\