diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
index e303925cf59..9dd3ee53090 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
@@ -2384,10 +2384,15 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
             raise AssertionError("implementation error -- msg to explain the error is required")
         kwargs['failed'] = True
 
-        # add traceback if debug or high verbosity and it is missing
-        # Note: badly named as exception, it is really always been 'traceback'
+        # Add traceback if debug or high verbosity and it is missing
+        # NOTE: Badly named as exception, it really always has been a traceback
         if 'exception' not in kwargs and sys.exc_info()[2] and (self._debug or self._verbosity >= 3):
-            kwargs['exception'] = ''.join(traceback.format_tb(sys.exc_info()[2]))
+            if PY2:
+                # On Python 2 this is the last (stack frame) exception and as such may be unrelated to the failure
+                kwargs['exception'] = 'WARNING: The below traceback may *not* be related to the actual failure.\n' +\
+                                      ''.join(traceback.format_tb(sys.exc_info()[2]))
+            else:
+                kwargs['exception'] = ''.join(traceback.format_tb(sys.exc_info()[2]))
 
         self.do_cleanup_files()
         self._return_formatted(kwargs)