diff --git a/bin/cdist b/bin/cdist
index c6467477..8d0dfc76 100755
--- a/bin/cdist
+++ b/bin/cdist
@@ -194,6 +194,13 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     # Sys is needed for sys.exit()
     import sys
 
+    cdistpythonversion = '3.2'
+    if sys.version < cdistpythonversion:
+        print('Cdist requires Python >= ' + cdistpythonversion +
+            ' on the source host.', file=sys.stderr)
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+
     exit_code = 0
 
     try:
@@ -201,11 +208,6 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         import os
         import re
 
-        cdistpythonversion = '3.2'
-        if sys.version < cdistpythonversion:
-            raise cdist.Error('Cdist requires Python >= ' + cdistpythonversion +
-                ' on the source host.')
-
         # Ensure our /lib/ is included into PYTHON_PATH
         sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath(
                 os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), '../lib')))