diff --git a/src/uu/sort/src/check.rs b/src/uu/sort/src/check.rs
index a826bc75507..118d2d0fa6a 100644
--- a/src/uu/sort/src/check.rs
+++ b/src/uu/sort/src/check.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ pub fn check(path: &OsStr, settings: &GlobalSettings) -> UResult<()> {
     let file = open(path)?;
     let (recycled_sender, recycled_receiver) = sync_channel(2);
     let (loaded_sender, loaded_receiver) = sync_channel(2);
-    thread::spawn({
+    let reader_join_handle = thread::spawn({
         let settings = settings.clone();
         move || reader(file, &recycled_receiver, &loaded_sender, &settings)
     });
@@ -111,7 +111,10 @@ pub fn check(path: &OsStr, settings: &GlobalSettings) -> UResult<()> {
     drop(recycled_sender);
     while loaded_receiver.recv().is_ok() {}
 
-    result
+    // A read error ends the input early, so without this the part read so far
+    // would be checked and reported as sorted.
+    let reader_result = reader_join_handle.join().unwrap();
+    result.and(reader_result)
 }
 
 /// The function running on the reader thread.
diff --git a/src/uu/sort/src/chunks.rs b/src/uu/sort/src/chunks.rs
index ee8261dd856..1a2d16da6f8 100644
--- a/src/uu/sort/src/chunks.rs
+++ b/src/uu/sort/src/chunks.rs
@@ -18,10 +18,11 @@ use std::{
 
 use memchr::memchr_iter;
 use self_cell::self_cell;
-use uucore::error::{UResult, USimpleError, strip_errno};
-use uucore::translate;
+use uucore::error::UResult;
 
-use crate::{GeneralBigDecimalParseResult, GlobalSettings, Line, numeric_str_cmp::NumInfo};
+use crate::{
+    GeneralBigDecimalParseResult, GlobalSettings, Line, SortError, numeric_str_cmp::NumInfo,
+};
 
 const ALLOC_CHUNK_SIZE: usize = 64 * 1024;
 const MAX_TOKEN_BUFFER_BYTES: usize = 4 * 1024 * 1024;
@@ -424,11 +425,8 @@ fn read_to_buffer<T: Read>(
             Err(e) if e.kind() == ErrorKind::Interrupted => {
                 // retry
             }
-            Err(e) => {
-                return Err(USimpleError::new(
-                    2,
-                    translate!("sort-read-failed", "error" => strip_errno(&e)),
-                ));
+            Err(error) => {
+                return Err(SortError::ChunkReadFailed { error }.into());
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/uu/sort/src/sort.rs b/src/uu/sort/src/sort.rs
index 94edeaa8ca2..f035d79e685 100644
--- a/src/uu/sort/src/sort.rs
+++ b/src/uu/sort/src/sort.rs
@@ -161,6 +161,9 @@ pub enum SortError {
         error: std::io::Error,
     },
 
+    #[error("{}", translate!("sort-read-failed", "error" => strip_errno(.error)))]
+    ChunkReadFailed { error: std::io::Error },
+
     #[error("{}", translate!("sort-open-tmp-file-failed", "error" => strip_errno(.error)))]
     OpenTmpFileFailed { error: std::io::Error },
 
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_sort.rs b/tests/by-util/test_sort.rs
index 23dd109dd12..12fb8a84941 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_sort.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_sort.rs
@@ -2335,6 +2335,22 @@ fn test_files0_from_non_utf8_filename() {
         .stderr_contains("sort: cannot read");
 }
 
+#[rstest::rstest]
+#[case(&["-c", "dir"])]
+#[case(&["-C", "dir"])]
+#[case(&["-m", "input", "dir"])]
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn test_read_error_on_reader_thread(#[case] args: &[&str]) {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.mkdir("dir");
+    at.write("input", "a\nb\n");
+    ucmd.args(args)
+        .fails_with_code(2)
+        .stderr_contains("sort: read failed: ")
+        .stderr_contains("Is a directory")
+        .stderr_does_not_contain("sort-read-failed");
+}
+
 #[test]
 #[cfg(unix)]
 fn test_files0_from_unreadable_source() {