diff --git a/Documentation/git-am.txt b/Documentation/git-am.txt
index 2ffba2102b..e640fc75cd 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-am.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-am.txt
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ aborts in the middle,.  You can recover from this in one of two ways:
 
 The command refuses to process new mailboxes while `.dotest`
 directory exists, so if you decide to start over from scratch,
-run `rm -f .dotest` before running the command with mailbox
+run `rm -f -r .dotest` before running the command with mailbox
 names.