diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/inv_json_sort_types_fix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/inv_json_sort_types_fix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cee79035795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/inv_json_sort_types_fix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - Deal with failures when sorting JSON and you have incompatible key types.
diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/inventory.py b/lib/ansible/cli/inventory.py
index 5fd6aa667eb..a63afdef196 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/inventory.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/inventory.py
@@ -183,7 +183,11 @@ class InventoryCLI(CLI):
         else:
             import json
             from ansible.parsing.ajson import AnsibleJSONEncoder
-            results = json.dumps(stuff, cls=AnsibleJSONEncoder, sort_keys=True, indent=4, preprocess_unsafe=True)
+            try:
+                results = json.dumps(stuff, cls=AnsibleJSONEncoder, sort_keys=True, indent=4, preprocess_unsafe=True)
+            except TypeError as e:
+                results = json.dumps(stuff, cls=AnsibleJSONEncoder, sort_keys=False, indent=4, preprocess_unsafe=True)
+                display.warning("Could not sort JSON output due to issues while sorting keys: %s" % to_native(e))
 
         return results
 
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/inventory/inv_with_int.yml b/test/integration/targets/inventory/inv_with_int.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5b2f21da711
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/targets/inventory/inv_with_int.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+all:
+  hosts:
+    testing123:
+      x:
+        a: 1
+        0: 2
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/inventory/runme.sh b/test/integration/targets/inventory/runme.sh
index dba8a519475..7ce16cf54ef 100755
--- a/test/integration/targets/inventory/runme.sh
+++ b/test/integration/targets/inventory/runme.sh
@@ -85,3 +85,6 @@ if ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED=True ansible -m ping localhost -i "$
     echo "Empty directory should cause failure when ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED=True"
     exit 1
 fi
+
+# ensure we don't traceback on inventory due to variables with int as key
+ansible-inventory  -i inv_with_int.yml --list "$@"