diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 5f2b2538fc..799ed1baa6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ git-annex (10.20220223) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * Run annex.thawcontent-command before deleting an object file,
     in case annex.freezecontent-command did something that would prevent
     deletion.
+  * Propagate nonzero exit status from git ls-files when a specified
+    file does not exist, or a specified directory does not contain
+    any files checked into git.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Wed, 23 Feb 2022 14:14:09 -0400
 
diff --git a/CmdLine/Seek.hs b/CmdLine/Seek.hs
index 3daaa5ad80..3bc56dc750 100644
--- a/CmdLine/Seek.hs
+++ b/CmdLine/Seek.hs
@@ -77,13 +77,13 @@ withFilesInGitAnnexNonRecursive ww needforce a (WorkTreeItems l) = ifM (Annex.ge
 		(fs, cleanup) <- inRepo $ LsFiles.inRepoDetails os [toRawFilePath p]
 		r <- case fs of
 			[f] -> do
-				void $ liftIO $ cleanup
+				propagateLsFilesError cleanup
 				fst <$> getfiles ((SeekInput [p], f):c) ps
 			[] -> do
-				void $ liftIO $ cleanup
+				propagateLsFilesError cleanup
 				fst <$> getfiles c ps
 			_ -> do
-				void $ liftIO $ cleanup
+				propagateLsFilesError cleanup
 				giveup needforce
 		return (r, pure True)
 withFilesInGitAnnexNonRecursive _ _ _ NoWorkTreeItems = noop
@@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ seekFiltered prefilter a listfs = do
 	checktimelimit <- mkCheckTimeLimit
 	(fs, cleanup) <- listfs
 	go matcher checktimelimit fs
-	liftIO $ void cleanup
+	propagateLsFilesError cleanup
   where
 	go _ _ [] = return ()
 	go matcher checktimelimit (v@(_si, f):rest) = checktimelimit noop $ do
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ seekFilteredKeys seeker listfs = do
 				)
 			join (liftIO (wait mdprocessertid))
 			join (liftIO (wait processertid))
-	liftIO $ void cleanup
+	propagateLsFilesError cleanup
   where
 	finisher mi oreader checktimelimit = liftIO oreader >>= \case
 		Just ((si, f), content) -> checktimelimit (liftIO discard) $ do
@@ -618,3 +618,8 @@ mkCheckTimeLimit = Annex.getState Annex.timelimit >>= \case
 				cleanup
 				liftIO $ exitWith $ ExitFailure 101
 			else a
+
+propagateLsFilesError :: IO Bool -> Annex ()
+propagateLsFilesError cleanup =
+	unlessM (liftIO cleanup) $
+		Annex.incError
diff --git a/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__.mdwn b/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__.mdwn
index 0fd184112b..2ecb0c10c5 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__.mdwn
@@ -20,3 +20,5 @@ git-annex version: 10.20220222+git23-g51c528980-1~ndall+1
 
 [[!meta author=yoh]]
 [[!tag projects/datalad]]
+
+> [[fixed|done]] --[[Joey]]
diff --git a/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__/comment_3_28060f4bb31730e3334cf3db56fc032b._comment b/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__/comment_3_28060f4bb31730e3334cf3db56fc032b._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b026f985a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/no_longer_non-0_exit_for___34__find_..._nonexisting__34__/comment_3_28060f4bb31730e3334cf3db56fc032b._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 3"""
+ date="2022-02-28T16:32:08Z"
+ content="""
+I've fixed it to propagate the non-zero exit status from git ls-files.
+
+The git ls-files message still goes to stderr, not to
+--json-error-messages, the same as any stderr output by a git command
+that git-annex runs. And this is actually not a behavior change;
+the old git-annex output of "not found" did not get included in
+--json-error-messages either:
+
+	joey@darkstar:/tmp/mmm>/usr/bin/git-annex drop dne foo --json --json-error-messages
+	git-annex: dne not found
+	{"command":"drop","wanted":[],"note":"unsafe\nCould only verify the existence of 0 out of 1 necessary copy\n(Use --force to override this check, or adjust numcopies.)","success":false,"input":["foo"],"key":"SHA256E-s3--98ea6e4f216f2fb4b69fff9b3a44842c38686ca685f3f55dc48c5d3fb1107be4","error-messages":[],"file":"foo/bar"}
+	drop: 2 failed
+
+Bear in mind that --json-error-messages
+is about errors encountered while processing a particular file that it
+outputs a json record for. This error comes before it starts processing any
+particular file. Also, of course, error messages output by git commands
+are never included in --json-error-messages.
+
+I think it might be a good idea to add an actual API for detecting when
+there is this kind of problem, so datalad does not have to parse
+error messages (which could easily change). But that would need to be a
+separate discussion.
+"""]]