diff --git a/Annex/MetaData.hs b/Annex/MetaData.hs
index 2263e3e0c6..8379a6df8d 100644
--- a/Annex/MetaData.hs
+++ b/Annex/MetaData.hs
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import qualified Data.Text as T
 import Data.Time.Calendar
 import Data.Time.Clock
 import Data.Time.Clock.POSIX
+import Text.Read
 
 {- Adds metadata for a file that has just been ingested into the
  - annex, but has not yet been committed to git.
@@ -117,4 +118,4 @@ parseMetaDataMatcher p = (,)
 		in case (doubleval v, doubleval v') of
 			(Just d, Just d') -> d' `cmp` d
 			_ -> v' `cmp'` v
-	doubleval v = readish v :: Maybe Double
+	doubleval v = readMaybe v :: Maybe Double
diff --git a/doc/todo/--metadata_fieldname__62____61__VALUE_string_comparison/comment_3_9c298fbda8d395fe9b8395105708c3bd._comment b/doc/todo/--metadata_fieldname__62____61__VALUE_string_comparison/comment_3_9c298fbda8d395fe9b8395105708c3bd._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d27c4641b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/todo/--metadata_fieldname__62____61__VALUE_string_comparison/comment_3_9c298fbda8d395fe9b8395105708c3bd._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 3"""
+ date="2022-12-22T18:30:46Z"
+ content="""
+Thanks for double-checking. I have not tried your test but I think I see
+what is going on from the pattern. Strings starting with a number but then
+subsequently not a number were still being parsed to numbers and compared
+numerically. I've fixed that now.
+"""]]