diff --git a/nmap.cc b/nmap.cc
index 149359160..5ba71fc92 100644
--- a/nmap.cc
+++ b/nmap.cc
@@ -1462,6 +1462,9 @@ void  apply_delayed_options() {
     free(delayed_options.xmlfilename);
   }
 
+  if (o.verbose > 1)
+    o.reason = true;
+
   // ISO 8601 date/time -- http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html
   if (strftime(tbuf, sizeof(tbuf), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %Z", local_time) <= 0)
     fatal("Unable to properly format time");