diff --git a/sources/org.osbuild.curl b/sources/org.osbuild.curl
index db271ff3..c858ff61 100755
--- a/sources/org.osbuild.curl
+++ b/sources/org.osbuild.curl
@@ -317,6 +317,9 @@ class CurlSource(sources.SourceService):
                 failed_urls = ",".join([itm[1]["url"] for itm in dl_pairs])
                 raise RuntimeError(f"curl: error downloading {failed_urls}: error code {return_code}")
 
+        if len(dl_pairs) > 0:
+            raise RuntimeError(f"curl: finished with return_code {return_code} but {dl_pairs} left to download")
+
     def _fetch_all_old_curl(self, amended):
         with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=self.max_workers) as executor:
             for _ in executor.map(self.fetch_one, *zip(*amended)):
diff --git a/sources/test/test_curl_source.py b/sources/test/test_curl_source.py
index a3fd45f0..5a591a9e 100644
--- a/sources/test/test_curl_source.py
+++ b/sources/test/test_curl_source.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from unittest.mock import patch
 
 import pytest
 
+import osbuild.testutil
 from osbuild.testutil.net import http_serve_directory
 
 SOURCES_NAME = "org.osbuild.curl"
@@ -306,3 +307,16 @@ def test_curl_has_parallel_download(mocked_check_output, monkeypatch, sources_mo
 
     mocked_check_output.return_value = OLD_CURL_OUTPUT
     assert not sources_module.curl_has_parallel_downloads()
+
+
+# this check is only done in the "parallel=True" case
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("curl_parallel", [True], indirect=["curl_parallel"])
+def test_curl_result_is_double_checked(tmp_path, curl_parallel):
+    test_sources = make_test_sources(tmp_path, 1234, 5)
+
+    # simulate that curl returned an exit code 0 even though not all
+    # sources got downloaded
+    with osbuild.testutil.mock_command("curl", ""):
+        with pytest.raises(RuntimeError) as exp:
+            curl_parallel.fetch_all(test_sources)
+        assert re.match(r"curl: finished with return_code 0 but .* left to download", str(exp.value))