diff --git a/lisp/edmacro.el b/lisp/edmacro.el
index c995e2f89d7..8734f7cbebe 100644
--- a/lisp/edmacro.el
+++ b/lisp/edmacro.el
@@ -626,8 +626,7 @@ The string represents the same events; Meta is indicated by bit 7.
 This function assumes that the events can be stored in a string."
   (setq seq (copy-sequence seq))
   (cl-loop for i below (length seq) do
-           (when (/= (logand (aref seq i) 128) 0)
-             (setf (aref seq i) (logand (aref seq i) 127))))
+           (setf (aref seq i) (logand (aref seq i) 127)))
   seq)
 
 ;; These are needed in a --without-x build.