diff --git a/modules/chimera/src/main/java/org/dcache/chimera/JdbcFs.java b/modules/chimera/src/main/java/org/dcache/chimera/JdbcFs.java
index 7c64162bbe2..2b96f0fc15f 100644
--- a/modules/chimera/src/main/java/org/dcache/chimera/JdbcFs.java
+++ b/modules/chimera/src/main/java/org/dcache/chimera/JdbcFs.java
@@ -618,15 +618,15 @@ public DirectoryStreamB<HimeraDirectoryEntry> newDirectoryStream(FsInode dir) th
     @Override
     public void remove(String path) throws ChimeraFsException {
 
-        FsInode inode = path2inode(path);
-        FsInode parent = this.getParentOf(inode);
-        if (parent == null) {
+        File filePath = new File(path);
+
+        String parentPath = filePath.getParent();
+        if (parentPath == null) {
             throw new ChimeraFsException("Cannot delete file system root.");
         }
 
-        File filePath = new File(path);
+        FsInode parent = path2inode(parentPath);
         String name = filePath.getName();
-
         this.remove(parent, name);
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/chimera/src/test/java/org/dcache/chimera/BasicTest.java b/modules/chimera/src/test/java/org/dcache/chimera/BasicTest.java
index c864f9f0d3c..0ca6066bdfa 100644
--- a/modules/chimera/src/test/java/org/dcache/chimera/BasicTest.java
+++ b/modules/chimera/src/test/java/org/dcache/chimera/BasicTest.java
@@ -327,6 +327,28 @@ public void testRemoveLinkToDir() throws Exception {
         _fs.createLink(base, "aLink", "/junit");
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testRemoveLinkToSomewhare() throws Exception {
+
+        FsInode linkBase = _rootInode.mkdir("links");
+
+        _fs.createLink(linkBase, "file123", 0, 0, 0644, "/files/file123".getBytes(Charsets.UTF_8));
+        _fs.remove("/links/file123");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testRemoveLinkToFile() throws Exception {
+
+        FsInode fileBase = _rootInode.mkdir("files");
+        FsInode linkBase = _rootInode.mkdir("links");
+        FsInode fileInode = fileBase.create("file123", 0, 0, 0644);
+
+        _fs.createLink(linkBase, "file123", 0, 0, 0644, "/files/file123".getBytes(Charsets.UTF_8));
+        _fs.remove("/links/file123");
+
+        assertTrue("original file is gone!", fileInode.exists());
+    }
+
     @Ignore("broken test, normal filesystems do not allow directory hard-links. Why does chimera?")
     @Test
     public void testDirHardLink() throws Exception {