diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/datasources/reads/LowMemoryIntervalSharder.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/datasources/reads/LowMemoryIntervalSharder.java
index de02c9311..2ce832da8 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/datasources/reads/LowMemoryIntervalSharder.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/datasources/reads/LowMemoryIntervalSharder.java
@@ -204,10 +204,7 @@ public class LowMemoryIntervalSharder implements Iterator<FilePointer> {
             for(GATKChunk chunk: bin.getChunkList())
                 chunks.add(chunk.clone());
         }
-        final long referenceLinearIndexMinimumOffset = index.getLinearIndex(initialRegion.getContigIndex()).getMinimumOffset(initialRegion.getStart());
         final long linearIndexMinimumOffset = binTree.getLinearIndexEntry();
-        if(linearIndexMinimumOffset != referenceLinearIndexMinimumOffset)
-            throw new ReviewedStingException(String.format("Loaded linear index offset is incorrect; is %d, should be %d",linearIndexMinimumOffset,referenceLinearIndexMinimumOffset));
 
         // Optimize the chunk list with a linear index optimization
         chunks = index.optimizeChunkList(chunks,linearIndexMinimumOffset);