diff --git a/lib/Stow.pm.in b/lib/Stow.pm.in
index 643ed89..77f67b3 100755
--- a/lib/Stow.pm.in
+++ b/lib/Stow.pm.in
@@ -961,6 +961,12 @@ sub find_stowed_path {
     # If no .stow file was found, we need to find out whether it's
     # owned by the current stow directory, in which case $path will be
     # a prefix of $self->{stow_path}.
+    if (substr($path, 0, 1) eq '/' xor substr($self->{stow_path}, 0, 1) eq '/')
+    {
+        warn "BUG in find_stowed_path? Absolute/relative mismatch between " .
+             "Stow dir $self->{stow_path} and path $path";
+    }
+
     my @stow_path = split m{/+}, $self->{stow_path};
 
     # Strip off common prefixes until one is empty