diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/fix_spurious_stderr.yml b/changelogs/fragments/fix_spurious_stderr.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9318f4b8911
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/fix_spurious_stderr.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+ - dont emit empty error due to \n https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/39019
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/script.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/script.py
index b62da1ff82a..9e85bba0554 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/script.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/script.py
@@ -104,7 +104,10 @@ class InventoryModule(BaseInventoryPlugin, Cacheable):
                 (stdout, stderr) = sp.communicate()
 
                 path = to_native(path)
-                err = to_native(stderr or "") + "\n"
+                err = to_native(stderr or "")
+
+                if err and not err.endswith('\n'):
+                    err += '\n'
 
                 if sp.returncode != 0:
                     raise AnsibleError("Inventory script (%s) had an execution error: %s " % (path, err))