diff --git a/jsonschema/exceptions.py b/jsonschema/exceptions.py
index 2e5d4ca0..8d329690 100644
--- a/jsonschema/exceptions.py
+++ b/jsonschema/exceptions.py
@@ -321,12 +321,17 @@ class ErrorTree:
 
     def __init__(self, errors: Iterable[ValidationError] = ()):
         self.errors: MutableMapping[str, ValidationError] = {}
-        self._contents: Mapping[str, ErrorTree] = defaultdict(self.__class__)
+        self._contents: MutableMapping[str, ErrorTree] = defaultdict(
+            self.__class__,
+        )
 
         for error in errors:
             container = self
             for element in error.path:
-                container = container[element]
+                # Populate `_contents` directly (bypassing `__getitem__`)
+                # so that constructing the tree is the only thing allowed
+                # to auto-vivify entries in it.
+                container = container._contents[element]
             container.errors[error.validator] = error
 
             container._instance = error.instance
@@ -346,9 +351,14 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
         by ``instance.__getitem__`` will be propagated (usually this is
         some subclass of `LookupError`.
         """
-        if self._instance is not _unset and index not in self:
+        if index in self._contents:
+            return self._contents[index]
+        if self._instance is not _unset:
             self._instance[index]
-        return self._contents[index]
+        # `index` has no errors of its own -- return an empty tree for
+        # it without recording it in `_contents`, so that querying an
+        # error-free index does not change `__contains__`/`__iter__`.
+        return self.__class__()
 
     def __setitem__(self, index: str | int, value: ErrorTree):
         """
diff --git a/jsonschema/tests/test_exceptions.py b/jsonschema/tests/test_exceptions.py
index 358b9242..a54744bf 100644
--- a/jsonschema/tests/test_exceptions.py
+++ b/jsonschema/tests/test_exceptions.py
@@ -476,6 +476,33 @@ def test_iter(self):
         tree = exceptions.ErrorTree([e1, e2])
         self.assertEqual(set(tree), {"bar", "foobar"})
 
+    def test_getitem_of_an_error_free_index_does_not_mutate_the_tree(self):
+        """
+        Accessing a valid index that has no errors of its own returns
+        an (empty) subtree, but must not cause that index to start
+        being reported by `__contains__` / `__iter__` / `total_errors`,
+        since it never actually had any errors.
+
+        See https://github.com/python-jsonschema/jsonschema/issues/1328
+        """
+        error = exceptions.ValidationError(
+            "a bar message", validator="foo", instance=["spam", "eggs"],
+            path=["bar", 0],
+        )
+        tree = exceptions.ErrorTree([error])["bar"]
+
+        self.assertEqual(list(tree), [0])
+        self.assertIn(0, tree)
+        self.assertNotIn(1, tree)
+        self.assertEqual(tree.total_errors, 1)
+
+        subtree = tree[1]
+
+        self.assertIsInstance(subtree, exceptions.ErrorTree)
+        self.assertEqual(list(tree), [0])
+        self.assertNotIn(1, tree)
+        self.assertEqual(tree.total_errors, 1)
+
     def test_repr_single(self):
         error = exceptions.ValidationError(
             "1",