diff --git a/cmd/postgres_exporter/postgres_exporter.go b/cmd/postgres_exporter/postgres_exporter.go
index 1a9eaaa..37795aa 100644
--- a/cmd/postgres_exporter/postgres_exporter.go
+++ b/cmd/postgres_exporter/postgres_exporter.go
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ func parseUserQueries(content []byte) (map[string]intermediateMetricMap, map[str
 func addQueries(content []byte, pgVersion semver.Version, server *Server) error {
 	metricMaps, newQueryOverrides, err := parseUserQueries(content)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil
+		return err
 	}
 	// Convert the loaded metric map into exporter representation
 	partialExporterMap := makeDescMap(pgVersion, server.labels, metricMaps)