diff --git a/src/messages/MForward.h b/src/messages/MForward.h
index 514c4a359557a..8eb0b17850c4e 100644
--- a/src/messages/MForward.h
+++ b/src/messages/MForward.h
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@ struct MForward : public Message {
     // message are changed when reencoding with more features than the
     // client had originally.  That should never happen, but we may as
     // well be defensive here.
+    if (con_features != features) {
+      msg->clear_payload();
+    }
     encode_message(msg, features & con_features, payload);
     ::encode(con_features, payload);
     ::encode(entity_name, payload);