diff --git a/cpp/src/io/orc/aggregate_orc_metadata.cpp b/cpp/src/io/orc/aggregate_orc_metadata.cpp
index 3d43042842f..a4ae9999a19 100644
--- a/cpp/src/io/orc/aggregate_orc_metadata.cpp
+++ b/cpp/src/io/orc/aggregate_orc_metadata.cpp
@@ -172,9 +172,10 @@ std::vector<metadata::stripe_source_mapping> aggregate_orc_metadata::select_stri
       // Coalesce stripe info at the source file later since that makes downstream processing much
       // easier in impl::read
       for (const auto& stripe_idx : user_specified_stripes[src_file_idx]) {
-        CUDF_EXPECTS(stripe_idx < static_cast<decltype(stripe_idx)>(
-                                    per_file_metadata[src_file_idx].ff.stripes.size()),
-                     "Invalid stripe index");
+        CUDF_EXPECTS(
+          stripe_idx >= 0 and stripe_idx < static_cast<decltype(stripe_idx)>(
+                                             per_file_metadata[src_file_idx].ff.stripes.size()),
+          "Invalid stripe index");
         stripe_infos.push_back(
           std::make_pair(&per_file_metadata[src_file_idx].ff.stripes[stripe_idx], nullptr));
         row_count += per_file_metadata[src_file_idx].ff.stripes[stripe_idx].numberOfRows;