diff --git a/src/sysusers/sysusers.c b/src/sysusers/sysusers.c
index 96fb6f8ad5..19284217f7 100644
--- a/src/sysusers/sysusers.c
+++ b/src/sysusers/sysusers.c
@@ -2140,10 +2140,12 @@ static int parse_argv(int argc, char *argv[]) {
                         break;
 
                 case ARG_REPLACE:
-                        if (!path_is_absolute(optarg) ||
-                            !endswith(optarg, ".conf"))
+                        if (!path_is_absolute(optarg))
                                 return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EINVAL),
-                                                       "The argument to --replace= must an absolute path to a config file");
+                                                       "The argument to --replace= must be an absolute path.");
+                        if (!endswith(optarg, ".conf"))
+                                return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EINVAL),
+                                                       "The argument to --replace= must have the extension '.conf'.");
 
                         arg_replace = optarg;
                         break;
diff --git a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
index dbe9156f06..9fc8dad325 100644
--- a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
+++ b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
@@ -4167,10 +4167,12 @@ static int parse_argv(int argc, char *argv[]) {
                         break;
 
                 case ARG_REPLACE:
-                        if (!path_is_absolute(optarg) ||
-                            !endswith(optarg, ".conf"))
+                        if (!path_is_absolute(optarg))
                                 return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EINVAL),
-                                                       "The argument to --replace= must an absolute path to a config file");
+                                                       "The argument to --replace= must be an absolute path.");
+                        if (!endswith(optarg, ".conf"))
+                                return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EINVAL),
+                                                       "The argument to --replace= must have the extension '.conf'.");
 
                         arg_replace = optarg;
                         break;