diff --git a/lang/ast/structs.go b/lang/ast/structs.go
index c0775eb3be..171e150713 100644
--- a/lang/ast/structs.go
+++ b/lang/ast/structs.go
@@ -8682,7 +8682,7 @@ func (obj *ExprParam) SetValue(value types.Value) error {
 // usually only be valid once the engine has run and values have been produced.
 // This might get called speculatively (early) during unification to learn more.
 func (obj *ExprParam) Value() (types.Value, error) {
-	return nil, nil
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("no value for ExprParam")
 }
 
 // ExprPoly is a polymorphic expression that is a definition that can be used in
@@ -8799,7 +8799,7 @@ func (obj *ExprPoly) SetValue(value types.Value) error {
 // usually only be valid once the engine has run and values have been produced.
 // This might get called speculatively (early) during unification to learn more.
 func (obj *ExprPoly) Value() (types.Value, error) {
-	return nil, nil
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("no value for ExprPoly")
 }
 
 // ExprIf represents an if expression which *must* have both branches, and which
diff --git a/lang/interpret_test/TestAstFunc2/scope-lambda-printf.txtar b/lang/interpret_test/TestAstFunc2/scope-lambda-printf.txtar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..434d79dd63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lang/interpret_test/TestAstFunc2/scope-lambda-printf.txtar
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+-- main.mcl --
+import "fmt"
+$format = "%d"	# should get ignored
+$fn = func($format) {
+	fmt.printf($format, 42)
+}
+test $fn("%s") {}
+# should error at unification if possible, otherwise at runtime
+# TODO: I would expect that if the "%s" and "%d" swapped, that speculatively we
+# would be able to run this at compile time and know the result statically.
+-- OUTPUT --
+# err: errStream: func `printf@??????????` stopped before it was loaded: base kind does not match (Str != Int)