diff --git a/src/tty-ask-password-agent/tty-ask-password-agent.c b/src/tty-ask-password-agent/tty-ask-password-agent.c
index ba2e1d37f0..1aa90b6040 100644
--- a/src/tty-ask-password-agent/tty-ask-password-agent.c
+++ b/src/tty-ask-password-agent/tty-ask-password-agent.c
@@ -519,8 +519,12 @@ static int watch_passwords(void) {
         if (notify < 0)
                 return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to allocate directory watch: %m");
 
-        if (inotify_add_watch(notify, "/run/systemd/ask-password", IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_TO) < 0)
-                return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to add /run/systemd/ask-password to directory watch: %m");
+        if (inotify_add_watch(notify, "/run/systemd/ask-password", IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_TO) < 0) {
+                if (errno == ENOSPC)
+                        return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to add /run/systemd/ask-password to directory watch: inotify watch limit reached");
+                else
+                        return log_error_errno(errno, "Failed to add /run/systemd/ask-password to directory watch: %m");
+        }
 
         assert_se(sigemptyset(&mask) >= 0);
         assert_se(sigset_add_many(&mask, SIGINT, SIGTERM, -1) >= 0);