diff --git a/fish-rust/src/builtins/printf.rs b/fish-rust/src/builtins/printf.rs
index 9de048a4e..167dd4d06 100644
--- a/fish-rust/src/builtins/printf.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/src/builtins/printf.rs
@@ -698,7 +698,7 @@ fn print_esc_string(&mut self, mut str: &wstr) {
         while !str.is_empty() {
             let c = str.char_at(0);
             if c == '\\' {
-                let consumed_minus_1 = self.print_esc(str, false);
+                let consumed_minus_1 = self.print_esc(str, true);
                 str = &str[consumed_minus_1..];
             } else {
                 self.append_output(c);
diff --git a/tests/checks/printf.fish b/tests/checks/printf.fish
index cbedab18d..f1cc238e1 100644
--- a/tests/checks/printf.fish
+++ b/tests/checks/printf.fish
@@ -147,3 +147,7 @@ echo
 printf --help
 echo
 # CHECK: --help
+
+# This is how mc likes to encode the directory we should cd to.
+printf '%b\n' '\0057foo\0057bar\0057'
+# CHECK: /foo/bar/