What steps will reproduce the problem?

...:/tmp$ mkdir repro
...:/tmp$ cd repro/
...:/tmp/repro$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/repro/.git/
...:/tmp/repro$ git annex init test
init test ok
...:/tmp/repro$ echo "A" > a.txt
...:/tmp/repro$ git annex add a.txt
add a.txt (checksum...) ok
(Recording state in git...)
...:/tmp/repro$ git commit -m "add file"
[master (root-commit) bf53ce2] add file
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 120000 a.txt
...:/tmp/repro$ git annex whereis a.txt
whereis a.txt (1 copy) 
    5c028c6a-2c5e-11e2-bb9c-17bd7ce81377 -- here (test)
ok
...:/tmp/repro$ git annex unlock a.txt
unlock a.txt (copying...) ok
...:/tmp/repro$ git annex whereis a.txt

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

I'd expect that whereis executed on an unlocked file would behave like whereis executed on a locked file.

What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS \n \l

$ git-annex version
git-annex version: 3.20120406
local repository version: 3
default repository version: 3
supported repository versions: 3
upgrade supported from repository versions: 0 1 2

$ uname -a
Linux ... 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Please provide any additional information below.