diff --git a/cloudinit/net/dhcp.py b/cloudinit/net/dhcp.py
index 68a3834a2bd..23745cb4ef0 100644
--- a/cloudinit/net/dhcp.py
+++ b/cloudinit/net/dhcp.py
@@ -783,14 +783,21 @@ def parse_dhcpcd_lease(lease_dump: str, interface: str) -> Dict:
         subnet_cidr='20'
         subnet_mask='255.255.240.0'
         """
+        LOG.debug(
+            "Parsing dhcpcd lease for interface %s: %r", interface, lease_dump
+        )
 
         # create a dict from dhcpcd dump output - remove single quotes
-        lease = dict(
-            [
-                a.split("=")
-                for a in lease_dump.strip().replace("'", "").split("\n")
-            ]
-        )
+        try:
+            lease = dict(
+                [
+                    a.split("=")
+                    for a in lease_dump.strip().replace("'", "").split("\n")
+                ]
+            )
+        except ValueError as error:
+            LOG.error("Error parsing dhcpcd lease: %r", error)
+            raise InvalidDHCPLeaseFileError from error
 
         # this is expected by cloud-init's code
         lease["interface"] = interface
diff --git a/tests/unittests/net/test_dhcp.py b/tests/unittests/net/test_dhcp.py
index c38ee676d97..ac1754a5ce2 100644
--- a/tests/unittests/net/test_dhcp.py
+++ b/tests/unittests/net/test_dhcp.py
@@ -1199,6 +1199,17 @@ def test_parse_lease_dump(self):
         assert "255.255.240.0" == parsed_lease["subnet-mask"]
         assert "192.168.0.1" == parsed_lease["routers"]
 
+    def test_parse_lease_dump_fails(self):
+        lease = dedent(
+            """
+            fail
+            """
+        )
+
+        with pytest.raises(InvalidDHCPLeaseFileError):
+            with mock.patch("cloudinit.net.dhcp.util.load_binary_file"):
+                Dhcpcd.parse_dhcpcd_lease(lease, "eth0")
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
         "lease_file, option_245",
         (