diff --git a/xsdconvert/SimpleType.cc b/xsdconvert/SimpleType.cc
index d1ef38bbbccfe286c75180f55b41fbc0c86143af..9da05bf4fc9ef5e00f0a485cda4c8faa0f314489 100644
--- a/xsdconvert/SimpleType.cc
+++ b/xsdconvert/SimpleType.cc
@@ -535,8 +535,8 @@ void SimpleType::setReference(const Mstring& ref, bool only_name_dependency) {
         break;
       }
     }
-    fromRef = true;
     if (!found) {
+      fromRef = true;
       return;
     }
   }