diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/transformRequest.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/transformRequest.ts
index d263852609c91d..6c042377c60e07 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/transformRequest.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/transformRequest.ts
@@ -98,12 +98,16 @@ export async function transformRequest(
     }
   }
   if (code == null) {
-    const msg = checkPublicFile(url, root)
-      ? `This file is in /public and will be copied as-is during build without ` +
-        `going through the plugin transforms, and therefore should not be ` +
-        `imported from source code. It can only be referenced via HTML tags.`
-      : `Does the file exist?`
-    throw new Error(`Failed to load url ${url} (resolved id: ${id}). ${msg}`)
+    if (checkPublicFile(url, root)) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `Failed to load url ${url} (resolved id: ${id}). ` +
+          `This file is in /public and will be copied as-is during build without ` +
+          `going through the plugin transforms, and therefore should not be ` +
+          `imported from source code. It can only be referenced via HTML tags.`
+      )
+    } else {
+      return null
+    }
   }
 
   // ensure module in graph after successful load