diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Checker.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Checker.java
index 0c029209c..d26cb3469 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Checker.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Checker.java
@@ -171,8 +171,8 @@ public class Checker
                 catch (IOException ignored) {
                 }
             }
+            it.remove();
         }
-        it.remove();
     }
 
     /**