diff --git a/runtime/lua/man.lua b/runtime/lua/man.lua
index 18d08ad1a8..6eebee6376 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/man.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/man.lua
@@ -283,6 +283,14 @@ local function get_path(sect, name, silent)
     return
   end
 
+  -- `man -w /some/path` will return `/some/path` for any existent file, which
+  -- stops us from actually determining if a path has a corresponding man file.
+  -- Since `:Man /some/path/to/man/file` isn't supported anyway, we should just
+  -- error out here if we detect this is the case.
+  if sect == '' and #results == 1 and results[1] == name then
+    return
+  end
+
   -- find any that match the specified name
   local namematches = vim.tbl_filter(function(v)
     return fn.fnamemodify(v, ':t'):match(name)
diff --git a/test/functional/plugin/man_spec.lua b/test/functional/plugin/man_spec.lua
index 3e63c5df9a..203424c855 100644
--- a/test/functional/plugin/man_spec.lua
+++ b/test/functional/plugin/man_spec.lua
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ local exec_lua = helpers.exec_lua
 local funcs = helpers.funcs
 local nvim_prog = helpers.nvim_prog
 local matches = helpers.matches
+local write_file = helpers.write_file
+local tmpname = helpers.tmpname
 
 clear()
 if funcs.executable('man') == 0 then
@@ -156,4 +158,16 @@ describe(':Man', function()
     local args = {nvim_prog, '--headless', '+autocmd VimLeave * echo "quit works!!"', '+Man!', '+call nvim_input("q")'}
     matches('quit works!!', funcs.system(args, {'manpage contents'}))
   end)
+
+  it('reports non-existent man pages for absolute paths', function()
+    local actual_file = tmpname()
+    -- actual_file must be an absolute path to an existent file for us to test against it
+    matches('^/.+', actual_file)
+    write_file(actual_file, '')
+    local args = {nvim_prog, '--headless', '+:Man ' .. actual_file, '+q'}
+    matches(('Error detected while processing command line:\r\n' ..
+      'man.lua: "no manual entry for %s"'):format(actual_file),
+      funcs.system(args, {''}))
+    os.remove(actual_file)
+  end)
 end)