diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/10455-capabilities-improve-error-detection.yml b/changelogs/fragments/10455-capabilities-improve-error-detection.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..40337a424b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/10455-capabilities-improve-error-detection.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+    - capabilities - using invalid path (symlink/directory/...) returned unrelated and incoherent error messages (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/5649, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/10455).
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/plugins/modules/capabilities.py b/plugins/modules/capabilities.py
index b3143df0a4..08bd2e85ff 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/capabilities.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/capabilities.py
@@ -123,6 +123,8 @@ class CapabilitiesModule(object):
             if ' =' in stdout:
                 # process output of an older version of libcap
                 caps = stdout.split(' =')[1].strip().split()
+            elif stdout.strip().endswith(")"):  # '/foo (Error Message)'
+                self.module.fail_json(msg="Unable to get capabilities of %s" % path, stdout=stdout.strip(), stderr=stderr)
             else:
                 # otherwise, we have a newer version here
                 # see original commit message of cap/v0.2.40-18-g177cd41 in libcap.git