diff --git a/lily/general-scheme.cc b/lily/general-scheme.cc
index d25e6c9ef8..2fd2e4a4fa 100644
--- a/lily/general-scheme.cc
+++ b/lily/general-scheme.cc
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ LY_DEFINE (ly_protects, "ly:protects",
 #if SCM_MAJOR_VERSION < 2 || SCM_MAJOR_VERSION == 2 && SCM_MINOR_VERSION < 1
   return scm_protects;
 #else
-  return programming_error ("ly:protects is not supported in Guile 2.1");
+  programming_error ("ly:protects is not supported in Guile 2.1");
 #endif
 }