diff --git a/actions/overlay_action.go b/actions/overlay_action.go
index 2b597ce2..1d930405 100644
--- a/actions/overlay_action.go
+++ b/actions/overlay_action.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ package actions
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
+	"os"
 	"path"
 
 	"github.com/go-debos/debos"
@@ -43,6 +44,15 @@ func (overlay *OverlayAction) Verify(context *debos.DebosContext) error {
 	if _, err := debos.RestrictedPath(context.Rootdir, overlay.Destination); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+
+	/* only check default origin recipedir */
+	if len(overlay.Origin) == 0 {
+		sourceDir := path.Join(context.RecipeDir, overlay.Source)
+		if _, err := os.Stat(sourceDir); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/overlay-non-existent-destination/overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml b/tests/overlay-non-existent-destination/overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 473a42da..00000000
--- a/tests/overlay-non-existent-destination/overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-architecture: amd64
-
-actions:
-  # This overlay action is expected to error out here because the destination
-  # doesn't exist in the filesystem.
-  - action: overlay
-    description: Overlay file into a non-existent destination
-    source: overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml
-    destination: /this/path/does/not/exist/overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml
-
-  - action: run
-    description: Check if path exists
-    command: "[ -e /this/path/does/not/exist/overlay-non-existent-destination.yaml ] || exit 1"
-
-  - action: run
-    postprocess: true
-    command: echo Test