diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-status b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-status
index 52046d0cc..a2b430ea8 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-status
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-status
@@ -295,6 +295,7 @@ is_tty() {
 
 if ! [ "$(id -u)" = 0 ]; then
    echo "${0}: This command must be run as root"
+   exit 1
 fi
 
 while getopts ':hq' OPTION; do