diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 6708544758..31f0eecbc7 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -18720,6 +18720,7 @@ tests/webtbs/tw38074.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
 tests/webtbs/tw38083.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
 tests/webtbs/tw38122.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
 tests/webtbs/tw38122b.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
+tests/webtbs/tw38129.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
 tests/webtbs/tw3814.pp svneol=native#text/plain
 tests/webtbs/tw38145a.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
 tests/webtbs/tw38145b.pp svneol=native#text/pascal
diff --git a/compiler/ncgld.pas b/compiler/ncgld.pas
index 86fbaed98b..78224ccc6e 100644
--- a/compiler/ncgld.pas
+++ b/compiler/ncgld.pas
@@ -718,10 +718,13 @@ implementation
               empty value is assigned
 
            But not when the result is in the flags, then
-          loading the left node afterwards can destroy the flags.
+           loading the left node afterwards can destroy the flags.
+
+           Neither if right contains conditional nodes: this might cause problems with
+           temp. nodes with init code used by CSE, see e.g. #38129
         }
         if not(right.expectloc in [LOC_FLAGS,LOC_JUMP]) and
-            (node_complexity(right)>node_complexity(left)) then
+            (node_complexity(right)>node_complexity(left)) and not(has_conditional_nodes(right)) then
          begin
            secondpass(right);
            if codegenerror then
diff --git a/tests/webtbs/tw38129.pp b/tests/webtbs/tw38129.pp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f97fee93cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/webtbs/tw38129.pp
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{ %opt=-O3 }
+{$mode objfpc}
+{$H+}
+function Bar(const progress: single; divs: uint32): string;
+const
+    BarSym: array[boolean] of char = ('.', '#');
+var
+    i: int32;
+begin
+    SetLength(result, divs);
+    for i := 0 to int32(divs) - 1 do
+        pChar(result)[i] := BarSym[(progress >= (0.75 + i) / divs) or (i = int32(divs) - 1) and (progress >= 1)];
+end;
+
+var
+    s: string;
+
+begin
+  if Bar(0.7, 10)<>'#######...' then
+    halt(1);
+end.