diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index 89f1093d81..53cae6bb66 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -1197,8 +1197,10 @@ static int64_t sectors_to_bytes(int64_t sectors)
 /*
  * Check if passed sectors are empty (not allocated or contain only 0 bytes)
  *
- * Returns 0 in case sectors are filled with 0, 1 if sectors contain non-zero
- * data and negative value on error.
+ * Intended for use by 'qemu-img compare': Returns 0 in case sectors are
+ * filled with 0, 1 if sectors contain non-zero data (this is a comparison
+ * failure), and 4 on error (the exit status for read errors), after emitting
+ * an error message.
  *
  * @param blk:  BlockBackend for the image
  * @param sect_num: Number of first sector to check
@@ -1219,7 +1221,7 @@ static int check_empty_sectors(BlockBackend *blk, int64_t sect_num,
     if (ret < 0) {
         error_report("Error while reading offset %" PRId64 " of %s: %s",
                      sectors_to_bytes(sect_num), filename, strerror(-ret));
-        return ret;
+        return 4;
     }
     idx = find_nonzero(buffer, sect_count * BDRV_SECTOR_SIZE);
     if (idx >= 0) {
@@ -1476,11 +1478,6 @@ static int img_compare(int argc, char **argv)
                                           filename2, buf1, quiet);
             }
             if (ret) {
-                if (ret < 0) {
-                    error_report("Error while reading offset %" PRId64 ": %s",
-                                 sectors_to_bytes(sector_num), strerror(-ret));
-                    ret = 4;
-                }
                 goto out;
             }
         }
@@ -1525,12 +1522,6 @@ static int img_compare(int argc, char **argv)
                 ret = check_empty_sectors(blk_over, sector_num, nb_sectors,
                                           filename_over, buf1, quiet);
                 if (ret) {
-                    if (ret < 0) {
-                        error_report("Error while reading offset %" PRId64
-                                     " of %s: %s", sectors_to_bytes(sector_num),
-                                     filename_over, strerror(-ret));
-                        ret = 4;
-                    }
                     goto out;
                 }
             }
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/074.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/074.out
index 8fba5aea9c..ede66c3f81 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/074.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/074.out
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=1073741824
 wrote 512/512 bytes at offset 512
 512 bytes, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 qemu-img: Error while reading offset 0 of blkdebug:TEST_DIR/blkdebug.conf:TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT: Input/output error
-qemu-img: Error while reading offset 0: Input/output error
 4
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=1073741824
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT.2', fmt=IMGFMT size=0
@@ -12,7 +11,6 @@ Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT.2', fmt=IMGFMT size=0
 wrote 512/512 bytes at offset 512
 512 bytes, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 qemu-img: Error while reading offset 0 of blkdebug:TEST_DIR/blkdebug.conf:TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT: Input/output error
-qemu-img: Error while reading offset 0 of blkdebug:TEST_DIR/blkdebug.conf:TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT: Input/output error
 Warning: Image size mismatch!
 4
 Cleanup