diff --git a/libexec/rbenv-prefix b/libexec/rbenv-prefix
index a0aebab..5376cf5 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv-prefix
+++ b/libexec/rbenv-prefix
@@ -22,10 +22,14 @@ elif [ -z "$RBENV_VERSION" ]; then
 fi
 
 if [ "$RBENV_VERSION" = "system" ]; then
-  RUBY_PATH="$(rbenv-which ruby)"
-  RUBY_PATH="${RUBY_PATH%/*}"
-  echo "${RUBY_PATH%/bin}"
-  exit
+  if RUBY_PATH="$(rbenv-which ruby 2>/dev/null)"; then
+    RUBY_PATH="${RUBY_PATH%/*}"
+    echo "${RUBY_PATH%/bin}"
+    exit
+  else
+    echo "rbenv: system version not found in PATH" >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
 fi
 
 RBENV_PREFIX_PATH="${RBENV_ROOT}/versions/${RBENV_VERSION}"
diff --git a/test/prefix.bats b/test/prefix.bats
index b7afa87..0d6cdba 100644
--- a/test/prefix.bats
+++ b/test/prefix.bats
@@ -23,3 +23,17 @@ load test_helper
   RBENV_VERSION="system" run rbenv-prefix
   assert_success "$RBENV_TEST_DIR"
 }
+
+@test "prefix for invalid system" {
+  USRBIN_ALT="${RBENV_TEST_DIR}/usr-bin-alt"
+  mkdir -p "$USRBIN_ALT"
+  for util in head readlink greadlink; do
+    if [ -x "/usr/bin/$util" ]; then
+      ln -s "/usr/bin/$util" "${USRBIN_ALT}/$util"
+    fi
+  done
+  PATH_WITHOUT_RUBY="${PATH/\/usr\/bin:/$USRBIN_ALT:}"
+
+  PATH="$PATH_WITHOUT_RUBY" run rbenv-prefix system
+  assert_failure "rbenv: system version not found in PATH"
+}