diff --git a/hgext/shelve.py b/hgext/shelve.py
--- a/hgext/shelve.py
+++ b/hgext/shelve.py
@@ -650,7 +650,7 @@ def _commitworkingcopychanges(ui, repo, 
     # contains unknown files that are part of the pending change
     s = repo.status()
     addedbefore = frozenset(s.added)
-    if not (s.modified or s.added or s.removed or s.deleted):
+    if not (s.modified or s.added or s.removed):
         return tmpwctx, addedbefore
     ui.status(_("temporarily committing pending changes "
                 "(restore with 'hg unshelve --abort')\n"))
@@ -729,6 +729,17 @@ def _finishunshelve(repo, oldtiprev, tr)
     repo.unfiltered().changelog.strip(oldtiprev, tr)
     _aborttransaction(repo)
 
+def _checkunshelveuntrackedproblems(ui, repo, shelvectx):
+    """Check potential problems which may result from working
+    copy having untracked changes."""
+    wcdeleted = set(repo.status().deleted)
+    shelvetouched = set(shelvectx.files())
+    intersection = wcdeleted.intersection(shelvetouched)
+    if intersection:
+        m = _("shelved change touches missing files")
+        hint = _("run hg status to see which files are missing")
+        raise error.Abort(m, hint=hint)
+
 @command('unshelve',
          [('a', 'abort', None,
            _('abort an incomplete unshelve operation')),
@@ -857,7 +868,7 @@ def _dounshelve(ui, repo, *shelved, **op
                                                          tmpwctx)
 
         repo, shelvectx = _unshelverestorecommit(ui, repo, basename, oldquiet)
-
+        _checkunshelveuntrackedproblems(ui, repo, shelvectx)
         branchtorestore = ''
         if shelvectx.branch() != shelvectx.p1().branch():
             branchtorestore = shelvectx.branch()
diff --git a/tests/test-shelve.t b/tests/test-shelve.t
--- a/tests/test-shelve.t
+++ b/tests/test-shelve.t
@@ -1710,3 +1710,30 @@ Unshelve respects --keep even if user in
   $ hg shelve --list
   default         (*s ago)    changes to: 1 (glob)
   $ cd ..
+
+Unshelving when there are deleted files does not crash (issue4176)
+  $ hg init unshelve-deleted-file && cd unshelve-deleted-file
+  $ echo a > a && echo b > b && hg ci -Am ab
+  adding a
+  adding b
+  $ echo aa > a && hg shelve
+  shelved as default
+  1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
+  $ rm b
+  $ hg st
+  ! b
+  $ hg unshelve
+  unshelving change 'default'
+  $ hg shelve
+  shelved as default
+  1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
+  $ rm a && echo b > b
+  $ hg st
+  ! a
+  $ hg unshelve
+  unshelving change 'default'
+  abort: shelved change touches missing files
+  (run hg status to see which files are missing)
+  [255]
+  $ hg st
+  ! a