diff --git a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
index 42512da604..9de612c1d6 100644
--- a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
+++ b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
@@ -2238,6 +2238,9 @@ static int copy_files(Context *c, Item *i) {
                 return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to openat(%s): %m", i->path);
         }
 
+        if (r < 0 && !IN_SET(r, -EEXIST, -EROFS))
+                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to copy files to %s: %m", i->path);
+
         if (fstat(fd, &st) < 0)
                 return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to fstat(%s): %m", i->path);
 
diff --git a/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.03.sh b/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.03.sh
index d75294207a..c36f8f8790 100755
--- a/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.03.sh
+++ b/test/units/TEST-22-TMPFILES.03.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 set -eux
 set -o pipefail
 
+# shellcheck source=test/units/util.sh
+. "$(dirname "$0")"/util.sh
+
 rm -fr /tmp/{f,F,w}
 mkdir  /tmp/{f,F,w}
 touch /tmp/file-owned-by-root
@@ -190,6 +193,22 @@ F     /tmp/F/daemon/unsafe-symlink/exploit    0644 daemon daemon - -
 EOF
 test ! -e /tmp/F/daemon/unsafe-symlink/exploit
 
+#
+# 'C'
+#
+rm -rf /tmp/C-copy-failure-src /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst
+mkdir /tmp/C-copy-failure-src /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst
+printf payload >/tmp/C-copy-failure-src/file
+chmod 555 /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst
+
+(! runas nobody systemd-tmpfiles --create - <<EOF
+C     /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst    - - - - /tmp/C-copy-failure-src
+EOF
+)
+test ! -e /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst/file
+chmod 755 /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst
+rm -rf /tmp/C-copy-failure-src /tmp/C-copy-failure-dst
+
 #
 # 'w'
 #