diff --git a/Doc/library/stat.rst b/Doc/library/stat.rst
index 98219eaee97..083dc5e3bcf 100644
--- a/Doc/library/stat.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/stat.rst
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ Example::
 
        for f in os.listdir(top):
            pathname = os.path.join(top, f)
-           mode = os.stat(pathname).st_mode
+           mode = os.lstat(pathname).st_mode
            if S_ISDIR(mode):
                # It's a directory, recurse into it
                walktree(pathname, callback)