diff --git a/tools/virsh.c b/tools/virsh.c
index 1828d19f2115a7c56b898ea27f73347229c433c1..8acc71a3c36c8367b8a47598674db1429adec0fb 100644
--- a/tools/virsh.c
+++ b/tools/virsh.c
@@ -5507,7 +5507,7 @@ cmdSetvcpus(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
     if (!(dom = vshCommandOptDomain(ctl, cmd, NULL)))
         return false;
 
-    if (vshCommandOptInt(cmd, "count", &count) < 0) {
+    if (vshCommandOptInt(cmd, "count", &count) < 0 || count <= 0) {
         vshError(ctl, "%s", _("Invalid number of virtual CPUs"));
         goto cleanup;
     }