diff --git a/libnl_2/attr.c b/libnl_2/attr.c
index 11e8ae537..94676681b 100644
--- a/libnl_2/attr.c
+++ b/libnl_2/attr.c
@@ -154,10 +154,12 @@ int nla_put(struct nl_msg *msg, int attrtype, int datalen, const void *data)
 
 	/* Reserve space and init nla header */
 	nla = nla_reserve(msg, attrtype, datalen);
-	if (nla)
+	if (nla) {
 		memcpy(nla_data(nla), data, datalen);
+		return 0;
+	}
 
-	return -errno;
+	return -EINVAL;
 
 }