diff --git a/cmd/helm/lint.go b/cmd/helm/lint.go
index 6e08f2747..e83026117 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/lint.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/lint.go
@@ -97,10 +97,14 @@ func (l *lintCmd) run() error {
 
 	var total int
 	var failures int
+	rc := 0
 	for _, path := range l.paths {
 		if linter, err := lintChart(path, rvals, l.namespace, l.strict); err != nil {
 			fmt.Println("==> Skipping", path)
 			fmt.Println(err)
+			if err == errLintNoChart {
+				rc = 1
+			}
 		} else {
 			fmt.Println("==> Linting", path)
 
@@ -127,6 +131,10 @@ func (l *lintCmd) run() error {
 
 	fmt.Fprintf(l.out, "%s, no failures\n", msg)
 
+	if rc != 0 {
+		os.Exit(rc)
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/cmd/helm/lint_test.go b/cmd/helm/lint_test.go
index 7f045153c..973af9b63 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/lint_test.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/lint_test.go
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ var (
 	archivedChartPathWithHyphens = "testdata/testcharts/compressedchart-with-hyphens-0.1.0.tgz"
 	invalidArchivedChartPath     = "testdata/testcharts/invalidcompressedchart0.1.0.tgz"
 	chartDirPath                 = "testdata/testcharts/decompressedchart/"
+	chartMissingManifest         = "testdata/testcharts/chart-missing-manifest"
 )
 
 func TestLintChart(t *testing.T) {
@@ -46,4 +47,8 @@ func TestLintChart(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := lintChart(invalidArchivedChartPath, values, namespace, strict); err == nil {
 		t.Errorf("Expected a chart parsing error")
 	}
+
+	if _, err := lintChart(chartMissingManifest, values, namespace, strict); err == nil {
+		t.Errorf("Expected a chart parsing error")
+	}
 }