diff --git a/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/mapreduce/IcebergSplit.java b/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/mapreduce/IcebergSplit.java
index e4aeeaee6d3f..7295ff79ea94 100644
--- a/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/mapreduce/IcebergSplit.java
+++ b/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/mapreduce/IcebergSplit.java
@@ -71,11 +71,10 @@ public long getLength() {
   public String[] getLocations() {
     // The implementation of getLocations() is only meant to be used during split computation
     // getLocations() won't be accurate when called on worker nodes and will always return "*"
-    if (locations == null && conf != null) {
-      boolean localityPreferred = conf.getBoolean(InputFormatConfig.LOCALITY, false);
+    if (locations == null) {
+      boolean localityPreferred =
+          conf != null && conf.getBoolean(InputFormatConfig.LOCALITY, false);
       locations = localityPreferred ? Util.blockLocations(task, conf) : ANYWHERE.clone();
-    } else {
-      locations = ANYWHERE.clone();
     }
 
     return locations;
diff --git a/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/TestIcebergInputFormats.java b/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/TestIcebergInputFormats.java
index ce588a7e83e2..ad63b0b58c35 100644
--- a/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/TestIcebergInputFormats.java
+++ b/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/TestIcebergInputFormats.java
@@ -326,6 +326,8 @@ public void testLocality() throws Exception {
 
     for (InputSplit split : testInputFormat.create(builder.conf()).getSplits()) {
       assertThat(split.getLocations()).containsExactly("localhost");
+      // repeated calls must return the same locations that were computed and cached above
+      assertThat(split.getLocations()).containsExactly("localhost");
     }
   }