diff --git a/runtime/lua/vim/pack.lua b/runtime/lua/vim/pack.lua
index 532c85c5fe..1a0a3c4540 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/vim/pack.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/vim/pack.lua
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ end
 --- @param url string
 --- @param path string
 local function git_clone(url, path)
-  local cmd = { 'clone', '--quiet', '--origin', 'origin' }
+  local cmd = { 'clone', '--quiet', '--origin', 'origin', '--no-checkout' }
 
   if vim.startswith(url, 'file://') then
     cmd[#cmd + 1] = '--no-hardlinks'
diff --git a/test/functional/plugin/pack_spec.lua b/test/functional/plugin/pack_spec.lua
index 82f3f6c28e..bc28b026b3 100644
--- a/test/functional/plugin/pack_spec.lua
+++ b/test/functional/plugin/pack_spec.lua
@@ -583,6 +583,16 @@ describe('vim.pack', function()
       eq(false, vim.tbl_contains(rtp, after_dir))
     end)
 
+    it('does not checkout on bad `version`', function()
+      local err = pcall_err(exec_lua, function()
+        vim.pack.add({ { src = repos_src.basic, version = 'not-exist' } })
+      end)
+      matches('`not%-exist` is not a branch/tag/commit', err)
+      local plug_path = pack_get_plug_path('basic')
+      local entries = vim.iter(vim.fs.dir(plug_path)):totable()
+      eq({ { '.git', 'directory' } }, entries)
+    end)
+
     it('can install from the Internet', function()
       t.skip(skip_integ, 'NVIM_TEST_INTEG not set: skipping network integration test')
       exec_lua(function()