diff --git a/lib/index.js b/lib/index.js
index e4a2e76..ca7b2e6 100644
--- a/lib/index.js
+++ b/lib/index.js
@@ -33,11 +33,14 @@ const fs = require('fs')
 const glob = require('glob')
 const globify = pattern => pattern.split('\\').join('/')
 
-const readOutOfTreeIgnoreFiles = (root, rel, result = '') => {
-  for (const file of ['.gitignore', '.npmignore']) {
+const readOutOfTreeIgnoreFiles = (root, rel, result = '', ignorefileNames = ['.npmignore', '.gitignore']) => {
+
+  for (const file of ignorefileNames) {
     try {
       const ignoreContent = fs.readFileSync(path.join(root, file), { encoding: 'utf8' })
-      result += ignoreContent + '\n'
+      result = ignoreContent + '\n' + result;
+      ignorefileNames=[file]
+      break
     } catch (err) {
       // we ignore ENOENT errors completely because we don't care if the file doesn't exist
       // but we throw everything else because failing to read a file that does exist is
@@ -57,7 +60,7 @@ const readOutOfTreeIgnoreFiles = (root, rel, result = '') => {
   const newRoot = path.join(root, firstRel)
   const newRel = path.relative(newRoot, path.join(root, rel))
 
-  return readOutOfTreeIgnoreFiles(newRoot, newRel, result)
+  return readOutOfTreeIgnoreFiles(newRoot, newRel, result, ignorefileNames)
 }
 
 const pathHasPkg = (input) => {