diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-top.c b/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
index 2227b84aa002564b710439ab2072f609f3a0bd24..78f9c4576a0ca1dd1fc70872b1adff0e2a0d1da8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
@@ -951,9 +951,31 @@ static void event__process_sample(const event_t *self,
 	}
 
 	if (event__preprocess_sample(self, session, &al, symbol_filter) < 0 ||
-	    al.sym == NULL || al.filtered)
+	    al.filtered)
 		return;
 
+	if (al.sym == NULL) {
+		/*
+		 * As we do lazy loading of symtabs we only will know if the
+		 * specified vmlinux file is invalid when we actually have a
+		 * hit in kernel space and then try to load it. So if we get
+		 * here and there are _no_ symbols in the DSO backing the
+		 * kernel map, bail out.
+		 *
+		 * We may never get here, for instance, if we use -K/
+		 * --hide-kernel-symbols, even if the user specifies an
+		 * invalid --vmlinux ;-)
+		 */
+		if (al.map == session->vmlinux_maps[MAP__FUNCTION] &&
+		    RB_EMPTY_ROOT(&al.map->dso->symbols[MAP__FUNCTION])) {
+			pr_err("The %s file can't be used\n",
+			       symbol_conf.vmlinux_name);
+			exit(1);
+		}
+
+		return;
+	}
+
 	syme = symbol__priv(al.sym);
 	if (!syme->skip) {
 		syme->count[counter]++;