Let ${\ell }_j:=-d²/dx²+k²q_j\left(x\right)$, k = const > 0, j = 1,2, $0<essinf{q}_j\left(x\right)\le esssup{q}_j\left(x\right)<\infty$. Suppose that (*) ${\int }_0^{1}p\left(x\right)u₁(x,k)u₂(x,k)dx=0$ for all k > 0, where p is an arbitrary fixed bounded piecewise-analytic function on [0,1], which changes sign finitely many times, and $u_j$ solves the problem ${\ell }_j{u}_j=0$, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, $u_j^{\text{'}}(0,k)=0$, $u_j(0,k)=1$. It is proved that (*) implies p = 0. This result is applied to an inverse problem for a heat equation.