diff --git a/crypto/x509/by_dir.c b/crypto/x509/by_dir.c
index fc69b94d11..c628cbcab0 100644
--- a/crypto/x509/by_dir.c
+++ b/crypto/x509/by_dir.c
@@ -307,28 +307,22 @@ static int get_cert_by_subject(X509_LOOKUP *xl, int type, X509_NAME *name,
       for (;;) {
         snprintf(b->data, b->max, "%s/%08" PRIx32 ".%s%d", ent->dir, h, postfix,
                  k);
-#ifndef OPENSSL_NO_POSIX_IO
-#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(stat)
-#define stat _stat
-#endif
-        {
-          struct stat st;
-          if (stat(b->data, &st) < 0) {
-            break;
-          }
-        }
-#endif
-        // found one.
         if (type == X509_LU_X509) {
           if ((X509_load_cert_file(xl, b->data, ent->dir_type)) == 0) {
+            // Don't expose the lower level error, All of these boil
+            // down to "we could not find a CA".
+            ERR_clear_error();
             break;
           }
         } else if (type == X509_LU_CRL) {
           if ((X509_load_crl_file(xl, b->data, ent->dir_type)) == 0) {
+            // Don't expose the lower level error, All of these boil
+            // down to "we could not find a CRL".
+            ERR_clear_error();
             break;
           }
         }
-        // else case will caught higher up
+        // The lack of a CA or CRL will be caught higher up
         k++;
       }