diff --git a/builtin/receive-pack.c b/builtin/receive-pack.c
index 94d3e73cee..70e04b3efb 100644
--- a/builtin/receive-pack.c
+++ b/builtin/receive-pack.c
@@ -1813,11 +1813,14 @@ static void ref_transaction_rejection_handler(const char *refname,
 					      const char *old_target UNUSED,
 					      const char *new_target UNUSED,
 					      enum ref_transaction_error err,
-					      const char *details UNUSED,
+					      const char *details,
 					      void *cb_data)
 {
 	struct strmap *failed_refs = cb_data;
 
+	if (details)
+		rp_error("%s", details);
+
 	strmap_put(failed_refs, refname, (char *)ref_transaction_error_msg(err));
 }
 
@@ -1884,6 +1887,7 @@ static void execute_commands_non_atomic(struct command *commands,
 		}
 
 		ref_transaction_for_each_rejected_update(transaction,
+
 							 ref_transaction_rejection_handler,
 							 &failed_refs);
 
@@ -1895,7 +1899,7 @@ static void execute_commands_non_atomic(struct command *commands,
 			if (reported_error)
 				cmd->error_string = reported_error;
 			else if (strmap_contains(&failed_refs, cmd->ref_name))
-				cmd->error_string = strmap_get(&failed_refs, cmd->ref_name);
+				cmd->error_string = cmd->error_string_owned = xstrdup(strmap_get(&failed_refs, cmd->ref_name));
 		}
 
 	cleanup:
diff --git a/t/t5516-fetch-push.sh b/t/t5516-fetch-push.sh
index 46926e7bbd..45595991c8 100755
--- a/t/t5516-fetch-push.sh
+++ b/t/t5516-fetch-push.sh
@@ -1882,4 +1882,19 @@ test_expect_success 'push with F/D conflict with deletion and creation' '
 	git push testrepo :refs/heads/branch/conflict refs/heads/branch
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'pushing non-commit objects should report error' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf dest repo" &&
+	git init dest &&
+	git init repo &&
+
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+		test_commit --annotate test &&
+
+		tagsha=$(git rev-parse test^{tag}) &&
+		test_must_fail git push ../dest "$tagsha:refs/heads/branch" 2>err &&
+		test_grep "trying to write non-commit object $tagsha to branch ${SQ}refs/heads/branch${SQ}" err
+	)
+'
+
 test_done