git clone --sparse on Z/OS USS causes "you have unstaged changes" error

I am running on Z/OS Unix System Services and attempting to git clone a single directory from a repository, but am getting an "unstaged changes" error.

The cause is a don't in the README.md, but I don't know how to work round it. Is there a git attributes setting that I can use?

The initial command is for a sparse clone.

git clone --sparse https://github.com/myrepo

That clones and checks out the top level directory and top level files.

I cd into the cloned directory and run

git sparse-checkout add JustThisDir 

To checkout out JustThisDir. These commands work on my MacOS laptop, but on Z/OS USS I get an error

error: cannot set sparse-checkout patterns: You have unstaged changes.

Turns out the README.md file is showing as updated, and I need to run

git commit -am "readme fudge"

before the

git sparse-checkout add JustThisDir 

works.

There are other top level files in the directory, but it is only the README.md that shows as having untagged changes.

git diff

shows

-When your application needs messaging, you don’t 
+When your application needs messaging, you dont 

The repo has don't, but the git copy has dont

Someone just spotted that the apostrophe in the readme didn't look right.

The fix was the change don’t to don't