diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
index be99be86516a..3197a0d2d8df 100644
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -2396,6 +2396,7 @@ posix_listdir(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
     }
     strcpy(namebuf, PyBytes_AsString(opath));
     len = PyObject_Size(opath);
+    Py_DECREF(opath);
     if (len > 0) {
         char ch = namebuf[len-1];
         if (ch != SEP && ch != ALTSEP && ch != ':')