diff --git a/archival/tar.c b/archival/tar.c
index 00f9f87af..29244d4bf 100644
--- a/archival/tar.c
+++ b/archival/tar.c
@@ -645,7 +645,9 @@ int tar_main(int argc, char **argv)
 			break;
 		case 'x':
 			ctx_flag |= CTX_EXTRACT;
-			tar_handle->action_data = data_extract_all;
+			if (tar_handle->action_data != data_extract_to_stdout) {
+				tar_handle->action_data = data_extract_all;
+			}
 			break;
 
 			/* These are optional */
diff --git a/testsuite/tar/tar-extracts-to-standard-output b/testsuite/tar/tar-extracts-to-standard-output
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ca48e364e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testsuite/tar/tar-extracts-to-standard-output
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+echo foo > foo
+tar cf foo.tar foo
+cat foo.tar | busybox tar Ox | cmp foo -