diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index c6151315c..82cf622d4 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1192,6 +1192,11 @@ by configuring ``.sops.yaml`` with:
       yaml:
           indent: 2
 
+.. note::
+
+  The YAML emitter used by sops only supports values between 2 and 9. If you specify 1,
+  or 10 and larger, the indent will be 2.
+
 YAML anchors
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/cmd/sops/main.go b/cmd/sops/main.go
index a1d4807a1..a382b411a 100644
--- a/cmd/sops/main.go
+++ b/cmd/sops/main.go
@@ -706,7 +706,7 @@ func main() {
 		},
 		cli.IntFlag{
 			Name:  "indent",
-			Usage: "the number of spaces to indent YAML or JSON encoded file for encryption",
+			Usage: "the number of spaces to indent YAML or JSON encoded file",
 		},
 		cli.BoolFlag{
 			Name:  "verbose",