diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
index 8f31decc6b..84caf65603 100644
--- a/builtin/commit.c
+++ b/builtin/commit.c
@@ -441,16 +441,21 @@ static const char *prepare_index(const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 	 * (B) on failure, rollback the real index.
 	 */
 	if (all || (also && pathspec.nr)) {
+		char *ps_matched = xcalloc(pathspec.nr, 1);
 		repo_hold_locked_index(the_repository, &index_lock,
 				       LOCK_DIE_ON_ERROR);
 		add_files_to_cache(the_repository, also ? prefix : NULL,
-				   &pathspec, NULL, 0, 0);
+				   &pathspec, ps_matched, 0, 0);
+		if (!all && report_path_error(ps_matched, &pathspec))
+			exit(128);
+
 		refresh_cache_or_die(refresh_flags);
 		cache_tree_update(&the_index, WRITE_TREE_SILENT);
 		if (write_locked_index(&the_index, &index_lock, 0))
 			die(_("unable to write new index file"));
 		commit_style = COMMIT_NORMAL;
 		ret = get_lock_file_path(&index_lock);
+		free(ps_matched);
 		goto out;
 	}
 
diff --git a/t/t7501-commit-basic-functionality.sh b/t/t7501-commit-basic-functionality.sh
index bced44a0fc..cc12f99f11 100755
--- a/t/t7501-commit-basic-functionality.sh
+++ b/t/t7501-commit-basic-functionality.sh
@@ -101,22 +101,8 @@ test_expect_success 'fail to commit untracked file (even with --include/--only)'
 	test_must_fail git commit --only -m "baz" baz 2>err &&
 	test_grep -e "$error" err &&
 
-	# TODO: as for --include, the below command will fail because
-	# nothing is staged. If something was staged, it would not fail
-	# even though the provided pathspec does not match any tracked
-	# path. (However, the untracked paths that match the pathspec are
-	# not committed and only the staged changes get committed.)
-	# In either cases, no error is returned to stderr like in (--only
-	# and without --only/--include) cases. In a similar manner,
-	# "git add -u baz" also does not error out.
-	#
-	# Therefore, the below test is just to document the current behavior
-	# and is not an endorsement to the current behavior, and we may
-	# want to fix this. And when that happens, this test should be
-	# updated accordingly.
-
 	test_must_fail git commit --include -m "baz" baz 2>err &&
-	test_must_be_empty err
+	test_grep -e "$error" err
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'setup: non-initial commit' '