diff --git a/pod/perlfunc.pod b/pod/perlfunc.pod
index e95c54f42528..124144836e08 100644
--- a/pod/perlfunc.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfunc.pod
@@ -6295,6 +6295,8 @@ value, not for its regular truth value.
     while (readdir $dh) {
         print "$some_dir/$_\n";
     }
+    die "Got error while reading '$some_dir': $!"
+        if $!;
     closedir $dh;
 
 To avoid confusing would-be users of your code who are running earlier
@@ -6304,6 +6306,8 @@ recent vintage:
 
     use 5.012; # so readdir assigns to $_ in a lone while test
 
+In the case of an error, C<undef> will be returned and $! will be non-zero.
+
 =item readline EXPR
 
 =item readline
diff --git a/pp_sys.c b/pp_sys.c
index a431bbe30bae..4b357d4a43cb 100644
--- a/pp_sys.c
+++ b/pp_sys.c
@@ -4041,6 +4041,7 @@ PP(pp_readdir)
     }
 
     do {
+        SETERRNO(0,0);
         dp = (Direntry_t *)PerlDir_read(IoDIRP(io));
         if (!dp)
             break;