diff --git a/FileCheck.xs b/FileCheck.xs
index df1918c..5577395 100644
--- a/FileCheck.xs
+++ b/FileCheck.xs
@@ -230,8 +230,8 @@ int _overload_ft_stat(pTHX_ Stat_t *stat, int *size) {
       croak( "Overload::FileCheck::_check need to return an array ref" );
 
     av_size = AvFILL(stat_array);
-    if ( av_size > 0 && av_size != ( STAT_T_MAX - 1 ) )
-      croak( "Overload::FileCheck::_check: Array should contain 13 elements" );
+    if ( av_size >= 0 && av_size != ( STAT_T_MAX - 1 ) )
+      croak( "Overload::FileCheck::_check: Array should contain 0 or 13 elements, got %d", av_size + 1 );
 
     *size = av_size; /* store the av_size */
     if ( av_size > 0 ) {
diff --git a/lib/Overload/FileCheck.pm b/lib/Overload/FileCheck.pm
index 34acb3c..4ca1f2b 100644
--- a/lib/Overload/FileCheck.pm
+++ b/lib/Overload/FileCheck.pm
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ sub _check_from_stat {
         },
 
         # Existence and size (computed directly from cached stat)
-        e => sub { return CHECK_IS_NULL unless scalar @stat; _to_bool( $stat[ST_MODE] ) },  # file exists
+        e => sub { return CHECK_IS_NULL unless scalar @stat; CHECK_IS_TRUE },  # file exists (stat success implies existence)
         s => sub { $stat[ST_SIZE] },                                       # nonzero size (returns bytes); fallback breaks on symlinks
 
         # File type checks via mode bits (using @stat — follows symlinks)
diff --git a/t/mock-all-from-stat_basic.t b/t/mock-all-from-stat_basic.t
index 2d0c143..18577a7 100644
--- a/t/mock-all-from-stat_basic.t
+++ b/t/mock-all-from-stat_basic.t
@@ -134,8 +134,8 @@ __DATA__
 -S 'my.socket'
 !-s 'my.socket'
 
-# a zero stat
-!-e 'zero'
+# a zero stat (stat succeeded with all-zero fields — file exists but has no type)
+-e 'zero'
 !-f 'zero'
 !-l 'zero'
 !-d 'zero'