diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/fetch.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/fetch.py
index 69cec30742..2d32744294 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/fetch.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/fetch.py
@@ -121,31 +121,23 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
         if remote_checksum in ('0', '1', '2', '3', '4'):
             # these don't fail because you may want to transfer a log file that
             # possibly MAY exist but keep going to fetch other log files
+            result['changed'] = False
+            result['file'] = source
             if remote_checksum == '0':
                 result['msg'] = "unable to calculate the checksum of the remote file"
-                result['file'] = source
-                result['changed'] = False
             elif remote_checksum == '1':
                 if fail_on_missing:
                     result['failed'] = True
+                    del result['changed']
                     result['msg'] = "the remote file does not exist"
-                    result['file'] = source
                 else:
                     result['msg'] = "the remote file does not exist, not transferring, ignored"
-                    result['file'] = source
-                    result['changed'] = False
             elif remote_checksum == '2':
                 result['msg'] = "no read permission on remote file, not transferring, ignored"
-                result['file'] = source
-                result['changed'] = False
             elif remote_checksum == '3':
                 result['msg'] = "remote file is a directory, fetch cannot work on directories"
-                result['file'] = source
-                result['changed'] = False
             elif remote_checksum == '4':
                 result['msg'] = "python isn't present on the system.  Unable to compute checksum"
-                result['file'] = source
-                result['changed'] = False
             return result
 
         # calculate checksum for the local file