diff --git a/pkg/gocui/view.go b/pkg/gocui/view.go
index cbfbfb8cb..02f22e980 100644
--- a/pkg/gocui/view.go
+++ b/pkg/gocui/view.go
@@ -74,6 +74,16 @@ type View struct {
 	// true and viewLines to nil
 	viewLines []viewLine
 
+	// Number of leading entries in viewLines that correspond to the current
+	// buffer (v.lines), as built by the most recent refreshViewLinesIfNeeded.
+	// refreshViewLinesIfNeeded overwrites viewLines in place without truncating,
+	// so when a re-render is shorter than the previous one the tail keeps stale
+	// entries from that previous render (drawn deliberately, to avoid flicker
+	// while the new content loads). Those entries don't correspond to the
+	// current buffer, so readers that map a view line to a buffer line must
+	// ignore them; this is the count of the entries they may trust.
+	freshViewLineCount int
+
 	// If the last character written was a newline, we don't write it but
 	// instead set pendingNewline to true. If more text is written, we write the
 	// newline then. This is to avoid having an extra blank at the end of the view.
@@ -212,6 +222,7 @@ type pos struct {
 func (v *View) clearViewLines() {
 	v.tainted = true
 	v.viewLines = nil
+	v.freshViewLineCount = 0
 	v.clearHover()
 }
 
@@ -1476,6 +1487,7 @@ func (v *View) refreshViewLinesIfNeeded() {
 	}
 
 	v.firstDirtyLine = len(lines)
+	v.freshViewLineCount = lineIdx
 	v.tainted = false
 }
 
@@ -1716,19 +1728,15 @@ func (v *View) BufferLineForViewLine(y int) (int, bool) {
 func (v *View) bufferLineForViewLine(y int) (int, bool) {
 	v.refreshViewLinesIfNeeded()
 
-	if y < 0 || y >= len(v.viewLines) {
+	// Bound on freshViewLineCount rather than len(v.viewLines): the entries past
+	// it are a stale tail retained for flicker-avoidance (see freshViewLineCount)
+	// and don't correspond to the current buffer. Within the fresh range every
+	// entry's linesY was just built from v.lines, so it is guaranteed in range.
+	if y < 0 || y >= v.freshViewLineCount {
 		return 0, false
 	}
 
-	// refreshViewLinesIfNeeded overwrites viewLines in place without truncating,
-	// so while a shorter re-render is loading, the tail of viewLines can still
-	// hold stale entries pointing past the (shrunk) v.lines. Guard against that.
-	linesY := v.viewLines[y].linesY
-	if linesY >= len(v.lines) {
-		return 0, false
-	}
-
-	return linesY, true
+	return v.viewLines[y].linesY, true
 }
 
 // indexFunc allows to split lines by words taking into account spaces
diff --git a/pkg/gocui/view_test.go b/pkg/gocui/view_test.go
index 171517aea..2ed7e861f 100644
--- a/pkg/gocui/view_test.go
+++ b/pkg/gocui/view_test.go
@@ -230,10 +230,7 @@ func TestBufferLineForViewLineStaleTail(t *testing.T) {
 	// buffer, so the mapping must fail. (On the buggy code it instead maps to
 	// buffer line 1, the stale entry's lingering index.)
 	_, ok = v.BufferLineForViewLine(4)
-	/* EXPECTED:
 	assert.False(t, ok)
-	ACTUAL: */
-	assert.True(t, ok)
 }
 
 func TestContainsColoredText(t *testing.T) {