diff --git a/src/cmd/go/internal/script/engine.go b/src/cmd/go/internal/script/engine.go
index 88b10228c7..dfce755522 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/internal/script/engine.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/internal/script/engine.go
@@ -564,11 +564,14 @@ func (e *Engine) runCommand(s *State, cmd *command, impl Cmd) error {
 	}
 
 	wait, runErr := impl.Run(s, cmd.args...)
-	if runErr != nil {
+	if wait == nil {
+		if async && runErr == nil {
+			return cmdError(cmd, errors.New("internal error: async command returned a nil WaitFunc"))
+		}
 		return checkStatus(cmd, runErr)
 	}
-	if async && wait == nil {
-		return cmdError(cmd, errors.New("internal error: async command returned a nil WaitFunc"))
+	if runErr != nil {
+		return cmdError(cmd, errors.New("internal error: command returned both an error and a WaitFunc"))
 	}
 
 	if cmd.background {
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/list_issue_56509.txt b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/list_issue_56509.txt
index d0ed9e4517..b402b2b397 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/list_issue_56509.txt
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/list_issue_56509.txt
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 # leading the package matching code to think there were Go files in the
 # directory.)
 
+cd bar
 go list ./...
 ! stdout .
-
+cd ..
 
 [short] skip