diff --git a/python/paddle/fluid/dygraph/checkpoint.py b/python/paddle/fluid/dygraph/checkpoint.py
index 6bcd94b45ce064b6b1ae6b3e213214a6749b6aa9..d6c99a65851062218daab068304fba07640bff98 100644
--- a/python/paddle/fluid/dygraph/checkpoint.py
+++ b/python/paddle/fluid/dygraph/checkpoint.py
@@ -174,6 +174,9 @@ def _save_var_to_file(stat_dict, optimizers, file_dir, file_name):
 
 
 def _load_var_from_file(file_dir):
+    if not os.path.exists(file_dir):
+        raise IOError("{} not exist".format(file_dir))
+
     def walk_filename(file_dir):
         base_path = os.path.join(file_dir)
         var_name_list = []
diff --git a/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_imperative_checkpoint.py b/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_imperative_checkpoint.py
index 25d490f6797f3ae63308eb3e449d371864d9b28f..609662cf9880795b7f1ff57efb1205ac1eda0e72 100644
--- a/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_imperative_checkpoint.py
+++ b/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_imperative_checkpoint.py
@@ -150,6 +150,10 @@ class TestDygraphCheckpoint(unittest.TestCase):
                         dy_param_init_value[param.name] = param.numpy()
 
                     restore, _ = fluid.dygraph.load_persistables("save_dir")
+
+                    self.assertRaises(IOError, fluid.dygraph.load_persistables,
+                                      "not_exist_dir")
+
                     mnist.load_dict(restore)
 
                     self.assertEqual(len(dy_param_init_value), len(restore))