Index: src/btree.c
==================================================================
--- src/btree.c
+++ src/btree.c
@@ -6201,12 +6201,18 @@
   }
 
   /* Either we found one or more cells (cntnew[0])>0) or pPage is
   ** a virtual root page.  A virtual root page is when the real root
   ** page is page 1 and we are the only child of that page.
+  **
+  ** UPDATE:  The assert() below is not necessarily true if the database
+  ** file is corrupt.  The corruption will be detected and reported later
+  ** in this procedure so there is no need to act upon it now.
   */
+#if 0
   assert( cntNew[0]>0 || (pParent->pgno==1 && pParent->nCell==0) );
+#endif
 
   TRACE(("BALANCE: old: %d %d %d  ",
     apOld[0]->pgno, 
     nOld>=2 ? apOld[1]->pgno : 0,
     nOld>=3 ? apOld[2]->pgno : 0