diff --git a/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack-destructive.bats b/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack-destructive.bats
index 9d89c113..92945639 100755
--- a/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack-destructive.bats
+++ b/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack-destructive.bats
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ installed_required_containers() {
   for c in "${required_containers[@]}"; do
     container_installed "$c" && echo "$c"
   done
+  # Always succeed — under `set -e`, the function's own exit code is that of
+  # its last statement, so if the last array entry happens to be a container
+  # NOT installed on this node, the whole function (and any bare
+  # `x="$(installed_required_containers)"` caller) would spuriously fail even
+  # though earlier entries matched fine.
+  return 0
 }
 
 wait_running() {
diff --git a/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack.bats b/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack.bats
index f05f3880..9fa04a86 100644
--- a/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack.bats
+++ b/tests/lifecycle/bats/required-stack.bats
@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@ installed_required_containers() {
   for c in "${required_containers[@]}"; do
     container_installed "$c" && echo "$c"
   done
+  # Always succeed — see the identical comment in required-stack-destructive.bats.
+  return 0
 }
 
 bitcoin_rpc() {