diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-container.pl b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-container.pl
index c0d30346e568..c6a5ecde9e32 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-container.pl
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-container.pl
@@ -154,7 +154,10 @@ my $root = "/var/lib/containers/$containerName";
 my $profileDir = "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-container/$containerName";
 my $gcRootsDir = "/nix/var/nix/gcroots/per-container/$containerName";
 my $confFile = "/etc/containers/$containerName.conf";
-die "$0: container ‘$containerName’ does not exist\n" if !-e $confFile;
+if (!-e $confFile) {
+    exit 0 if $action eq "destroy";
+    die "$0: container ‘$containerName’ does not exist\n" ;
+}
 
 sub isContainerRunning {
     my $status = `systemctl show 'container\@$containerName'`;