diff --git a/changes/bug4353 b/changes/bug4353
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5e80c902c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug4353
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes:
+    - When running as client without a geoip database, do not print a
+      misleading (and plain wrong) log message that we're collecting
+      dirreq statistics - we're not collecting statistics as clients.
+      Also don't create a useless (because empty) stats file in the
+      stats/ directory. Fixes bug 4353, bugfix on 0.2.2.34.
+
diff --git a/src/or/config.c b/src/or/config.c
index 1b9f9fb475..afccf2e84e 100644
--- a/src/or/config.c
+++ b/src/or/config.c
@@ -1541,6 +1541,15 @@ options_act(const or_options_t *old_options)
       options->BridgeAuthoritativeDir) {
     time_t now = time(NULL);
     int print_notice = 0;
+
+    /* If we aren't acting as a server, we can't collect stats anyway. */
+    if (!server_mode(options)) {
+      options->CellStatistics = 0;
+      options->DirReqStatistics = 0;
+      options->EntryStatistics = 0;
+      options->ExitPortStatistics = 0;
+    }
+
     if ((!old_options || !old_options->CellStatistics) &&
         options->CellStatistics) {
       rep_hist_buffer_stats_init(now);