diff --git a/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs b/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
index 7673891a9f8..5be63736b96 100644
--- a/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
+++ b/src/uu/truncate/src/truncate.rs
@@ -239,7 +239,8 @@ fn truncate_reference_and_size(
     let fsize = metadata.len() as usize;
     let tsize = mode.to_size(fsize);
     for filename in &filenames {
-        file_truncate(filename, create, tsize).map_err_context(String::new)?;
+        file_truncate(filename, create, tsize)
+            .map_err_context(|| format!("cannot open {} for writing", filename.quote()))?;
     }
     Ok(())
 }
@@ -272,7 +273,8 @@ fn truncate_reference_file_only(
     })?;
     let tsize = metadata.len() as usize;
     for filename in &filenames {
-        file_truncate(filename, create, tsize).map_err_context(String::new)?;
+        file_truncate(filename, create, tsize)
+            .map_err_context(|| format!("cannot open {} for writing", filename.quote()))?;
     }
     Ok(())
 }
@@ -307,7 +309,11 @@ fn truncate_size_only(size_string: &str, filenames: Vec<String>, create: bool) -
         match file_truncate(filename, create, tsize) {
             Ok(_) => continue,
             Err(e) if e.kind() == ErrorKind::NotFound && !create => continue,
-            Err(e) => return Err(e.map_err_context(String::new)),
+            Err(e) => {
+                return Err(
+                    e.map_err_context(|| format!("cannot open {} for writing", filename.quote()))
+                )
+            }
         }
     }
     Ok(())
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs b/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
index 801951548ae..0ef65ec1645 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_truncate.rs
@@ -378,6 +378,15 @@ fn test_division_by_zero_reference_and_size() {
         .stderr_contains("division by zero");
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_no_such_dir() {
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["-s", "0", "a/b"])
+        .fails()
+        .no_stdout()
+        .stderr_contains("cannot open 'a/b' for writing: No such file or directory");
+}
+
 /// Test that truncate with a relative size less than 0 is not an error.
 #[test]
 fn test_underflow_relative_size() {