diff --git a/tools/virtiofsd/passthrough_ll.c b/tools/virtiofsd/passthrough_ll.c
index eb001b9d1e..fc15d61510 100644
--- a/tools/virtiofsd/passthrough_ll.c
+++ b/tools/virtiofsd/passthrough_ll.c
@@ -1344,14 +1344,13 @@ static void lo_unlink(fuse_req_t req, fuse_ino_t parent, const char *name)
     lo_inode_put(lo, &inode);
 }
 
-static void unref_inode_lolocked(struct lo_data *lo, struct lo_inode *inode,
-                                 uint64_t n)
+/* To be called with lo->mutex held */
+static void unref_inode(struct lo_data *lo, struct lo_inode *inode, uint64_t n)
 {
     if (!inode) {
         return;
     }
 
-    pthread_mutex_lock(&lo->mutex);
     assert(inode->nlookup >= n);
     inode->nlookup -= n;
     if (!inode->nlookup) {
@@ -1362,15 +1361,24 @@ static void unref_inode_lolocked(struct lo_data *lo, struct lo_inode *inode,
         }
         g_hash_table_destroy(inode->posix_locks);
         pthread_mutex_destroy(&inode->plock_mutex);
-        pthread_mutex_unlock(&lo->mutex);
 
         /* Drop our refcount from lo_do_lookup() */
         lo_inode_put(lo, &inode);
-    } else {
-        pthread_mutex_unlock(&lo->mutex);
     }
 }
 
+static void unref_inode_lolocked(struct lo_data *lo, struct lo_inode *inode,
+                                 uint64_t n)
+{
+    if (!inode) {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&lo->mutex);
+    unref_inode(lo, inode, n);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&lo->mutex);
+}
+
 static void lo_forget_one(fuse_req_t req, fuse_ino_t ino, uint64_t nlookup)
 {
     struct lo_data *lo = lo_data(req);
@@ -2458,13 +2466,7 @@ static void lo_destroy(void *userdata)
 {
     struct lo_data *lo = (struct lo_data *)userdata;
 
-    /*
-     * Normally lo->mutex must be taken when traversing lo->inodes but
-     * lo_destroy() is a serialized request so no races are possible here.
-     *
-     * In addition, we cannot acquire lo->mutex since unref_inode() takes it
-     * too and this would result in a recursive lock.
-     */
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&lo->mutex);
     while (true) {
         GHashTableIter iter;
         gpointer key, value;
@@ -2475,8 +2477,9 @@ static void lo_destroy(void *userdata)
         }
 
         struct lo_inode *inode = value;
-        unref_inode_lolocked(lo, inode, inode->nlookup);
+        unref_inode(lo, inode, inode->nlookup);
     }
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&lo->mutex);
 }
 
 static struct fuse_lowlevel_ops lo_oper = {