diff --git a/commit-reach.c b/commit-reach.c
index 349ca68a37..4acf1c02d5 100644
--- a/commit-reach.c
+++ b/commit-reach.c
@@ -854,10 +854,16 @@ static enum contains_result contains_tag_algo(struct commit *candidate,
 int commit_contains(struct ref_filter *filter, struct commit *commit,
 		    struct commit_list *list, struct contains_cache *cache)
 {
+	int result;
+
 	if (filter->with_commit_tag_algo ||
 	    generation_numbers_enabled(the_repository))
 		return contains_tag_algo(commit, list, cache) == CONTAINS_YES;
-	return repo_is_descendant_of(the_repository, commit, list);
+
+	result = repo_is_descendant_of(the_repository, commit, list);
+	if (result < 0)
+		die(_("failed to check reachability"));
+	return result;
 }
 
 int can_all_from_reach_with_flag(struct object_array *from,
diff --git a/t/t6301-for-each-ref-errors.sh b/t/t6301-for-each-ref-errors.sh
index e06feb06e9..72b27c8be3 100755
--- a/t/t6301-for-each-ref-errors.sh
+++ b/t/t6301-for-each-ref-errors.sh
@@ -52,6 +52,28 @@ test_expect_success 'Missing objects are reported correctly' '
 	test_must_be_empty brief-err
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'missing ancestors are reported by contains filters' '
+	test_when_finished "git update-ref -d refs/heads/missing-parent" &&
+	{
+		echo "tree $(git rev-parse HEAD^{tree})" &&
+		echo "parent $MISSING" &&
+		git cat-file commit HEAD |
+			sed -n -e "/^author /p" -e "/^committer /p" &&
+		echo &&
+		echo "missing parent"
+	} >commit &&
+	broken=$(git hash-object -t commit -w commit) &&
+	git update-ref refs/heads/missing-parent "$broken" &&
+	for option in --contains --no-contains
+	do
+		test_must_fail git for-each-ref "$option=HEAD" \
+			refs/heads/missing-parent >out 2>err &&
+		test_must_be_empty out &&
+		test_grep "parse commit $MISSING" err ||
+		return 1
+	done
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'ahead-behind requires an argument' '
 	test_must_fail git for-each-ref \
 		--format="%(ahead-behind)" 2>err &&