diff --git a/cmd/podman/containers/create.go b/cmd/podman/containers/create.go
index a3b9e3e143bf..d5b4bbcc435a 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/containers/create.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/containers/create.go
@@ -154,6 +154,13 @@ func create(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		}
 		imageName = name
 	}
+
+	if cliVals.Authfile != "" {
+		if _, err := os.Stat(cliVals.Authfile); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
 	s := specgen.NewSpecGenerator(imageName, cliVals.RootFS)
 	if err := specgenutil.FillOutSpecGen(s, &cliVals, args); err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/test/system/030-run.bats b/test/system/030-run.bats
index 2b089f25731e..ac4d932da740 100644
--- a/test/system/030-run.bats
+++ b/test/system/030-run.bats
@@ -1158,4 +1158,15 @@ EOF
     run_podman rm -f -t0 $ctr
 }
 
+@test "podman run --authfile=/tmp/bogus " {
+    run_podman 125 run --authfile=/tmp/bogus $IMAGE false
+    is "$output" "Error: stat /tmp/bogus: no such file or directory" "should faile with not such file"
+
+    run_podman 125 create --authfile=/tmp/bogus $IMAGE false
+    is "$output" "Error: stat /tmp/bogus: no such file or directory" "should faile with not such file"
+
+    run_podman 125 pull --authfile=/tmp/bogus $IMAGE
+    is "$output" "Error: stat /tmp/bogus: no such file or directory" "should faile with not such file"
+}
+
 # vim: filetype=sh
diff --git a/test/system/700-play.bats b/test/system/700-play.bats
index 2bcea8b7d181..24d00569b4aa 100644
--- a/test/system/700-play.bats
+++ b/test/system/700-play.bats
@@ -724,3 +724,12 @@ spec:
 
     run_podman kube down $pod_file
 }
+
+@test "podman kube with --authfile=/tmp/bogus" {
+    TESTDIR=$PODMAN_TMPDIR/testdir
+    mkdir -p $TESTDIR
+    echo "$testYaml" | sed "s|TESTDIR|${TESTDIR}|g" > $PODMAN_TMPDIR/test.yaml
+
+    run_podman 125 kube play --authfile=/tmp/bogus - < $PODMAN_TMPDIR/test.yaml
+    is "$output" "Error: stat /tmp/bogus: no such file or directory" "should faile with not such file"
+}