diff --git a/share/completions/lpadmin.fish b/share/completions/lpadmin.fish
index 578b158f9..acfc57eeb 100644
--- a/share/completions/lpadmin.fish
+++ b/share/completions/lpadmin.fish
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ complete -c lpadmin -s o -d 'Sets the binary communications program to use when
 complete -c lpadmin -s o -d 'Sets the error policy to be used when the printer backend is unable to send the job to the printer. ' -xa 'printer-error-policy=abort-job printer-error-policy=retry-job printer-error-policy=retry-current-job printer-error-policy=stop-printer'
 complete -c lpadmin -s o -xa printer-is-shared=true -d 'Sets the destination to shared/published or unshared/unpublished'
 complete -c lpadmin -s o -xa printer-is-shared=false -d 'Sets the destination to shared/published or unshared/unpublished'
-complete -c lpadmin -s o -d 'Sets the IPP operation policy associated with the destination' -xa "printer-policy=(string replace -r --filter '<Policy (.*)>' '$1' < /etc/cups/cupsd.conf)"
+complete -c lpadmin -s o -d 'Sets the IPP operation policy associated with the destination' -xa "printer-policy=(test -r /etc/cups/cupsd.conf; and string replace -r --filter '<Policy (.*)>' '$1' < /etc/cups/cupsd.conf)"
 
 complete -c lpadmin -s u -xa 'allow:all allow:none (__fish_complete_list , __fish_complete_users allow:)' -d 'Sets user-level access control on a destination. Names starting with "@" are interpreted as UNIX group'
 complete -c lpadmin -s u -xa '(__fish_complete_list , __fish_complete_groups allow: @)' -d 'Sets user-level access control on a destination. Names starting with "@" are interpreted as UNIX group'