diff --git a/builtin/checkout-index.c b/builtin/checkout-index.c
index 195165d8bd..4bbfc92dce 100644
--- a/builtin/checkout-index.c
+++ b/builtin/checkout-index.c
@@ -167,6 +167,7 @@ int cmd_checkout_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	int prefix_length;
 	int force = 0, quiet = 0, not_new = 0;
 	int index_opt = 0;
+	int err = 0;
 	struct option builtin_checkout_index_options[] = {
 		OPT_BOOL('a', "all", &all,
 			N_("check out all files in the index")),
@@ -231,7 +232,7 @@ int cmd_checkout_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		if (read_from_stdin)
 			die("git checkout-index: don't mix '--stdin' and explicit filenames");
 		p = prefix_path(prefix, prefix_length, arg);
-		checkout_file(p, prefix);
+		err |= checkout_file(p, prefix);
 		free(p);
 	}
 
@@ -253,13 +254,16 @@ int cmd_checkout_index(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 				strbuf_swap(&buf, &unquoted);
 			}
 			p = prefix_path(prefix, prefix_length, buf.buf);
-			checkout_file(p, prefix);
+			err |= checkout_file(p, prefix);
 			free(p);
 		}
 		strbuf_release(&unquoted);
 		strbuf_release(&buf);
 	}
 
+	if (err)
+		return 1;
+
 	if (all)
 		checkout_all(prefix, prefix_length);
 
diff --git a/t/t2004-checkout-cache-temp.sh b/t/t2004-checkout-cache-temp.sh
index 4308d698b9..a9352b08a8 100755
--- a/t/t2004-checkout-cache-temp.sh
+++ b/t/t2004-checkout-cache-temp.sh
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ test_expect_success 'checkout all stage 2 to temporary files' '
 	done
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'checkout all stages of unknown path' '
+test_expect_success 'checkout all stages of unknown path' '
 	rm -f path* .merge_* actual &&
 	test_must_fail git checkout-index --stage=all --temp \
 		-- does-not-exist 2>stderr &&
diff --git a/t/t2006-checkout-index-basic.sh b/t/t2006-checkout-index-basic.sh
index 57cbdfe9bc..8e181dbf01 100755
--- a/t/t2006-checkout-index-basic.sh
+++ b/t/t2006-checkout-index-basic.sh
@@ -21,4 +21,15 @@ test_expect_success 'checkout-index -h in broken repository' '
 	test_i18ngrep "[Uu]sage" broken/usage
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'checkout-index reports errors (cmdline)' '
+	test_must_fail git checkout-index -- does-not-exist 2>stderr &&
+	test_i18ngrep not.in.the.cache stderr
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'checkout-index reports errors (stdin)' '
+	echo does-not-exist |
+	test_must_fail git checkout-index --stdin 2>stderr &&
+	test_i18ngrep not.in.the.cache stderr
+'
+
 test_done