diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index cfc3bc335c..4b2d59aedd 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -2113,13 +2113,6 @@ static int img_convert(int argc, char **argv)
     }
 
 
-    if (bs_n > 1 && out_baseimg) {
-        error_report("-B makes no sense when concatenating multiple input "
-                     "images");
-        ret = -1;
-        goto out;
-    }
-
     src_flags = 0;
     ret = bdrv_parse_cache_mode(src_cache, &src_flags, &src_writethrough);
     if (ret < 0) {
@@ -2229,6 +2222,13 @@ static int img_convert(int argc, char **argv)
         out_baseimg = out_baseimg_param;
     }
 
+    if (bs_n > 1 && out_baseimg) {
+        error_report("Having a backing file for the target makes no sense when "
+                     "concatenating multiple input images");
+        ret = -1;
+        goto out;
+    }
+
     /* Check if compression is supported */
     if (compress) {
         bool encryption =
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/122.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/122.out
index 98814de5d6..9317d801ad 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/122.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/122.out
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@ read 65536/65536 bytes at offset 4194304
 64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 read 65536/65536 bytes at offset 8388608
 64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
-qemu-img: -B makes no sense when concatenating multiple input images
-qemu-img: -B makes no sense when concatenating multiple input images
+qemu-img: Having a backing file for the target makes no sense when concatenating multiple input images
+qemu-img: Having a backing file for the target makes no sense when concatenating multiple input images
 
 === Compression with misaligned allocations and image sizes ===