diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/aws_s3.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/aws_s3.py
index 81c28ef5996..84587c65d7f 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/aws_s3.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/aws_s3.py
@@ -693,7 +693,10 @@ def main():
         # Next, we check to see if the key in the bucket exists. If it exists, it also returns key_matches md5sum check.
         keyrtn = key_check(module, s3, bucket, obj, version=version, validate=validate)
         if keyrtn is False:
-            module.fail_json(msg="Key %s with version id %s does not exist." % (obj, version))
+            if version:
+                module.fail_json(msg="Key %s with version id %s does not exist." % (obj, version))
+            else:
+                module.fail_json(msg="Key %s does not exist." % obj)
 
         # If the destination path doesn't exist or overwrite is True, no need to do the md5um etag check, so just download.
         # Compare the remote MD5 sum of the object with the local dest md5sum, if it already exists.