diff --git a/src/pya/pya/pyaUtils.cc b/src/pya/pya/pyaUtils.cc
index 0bded8e92..65f1d7678 100644
--- a/src/pya/pya/pyaUtils.cc
+++ b/src/pya/pya/pyaUtils.cc
@@ -119,7 +119,9 @@ void check_error ()
       int status = 0;
       if (exc_value) {
         tl::Variant st = python2c<tl::Variant> (exc_value.get ());
-        status = st.to_int ();
+        if (st.can_convert_to_int ()) {
+          status = st.to_int ();
+        }
       }
 
       throw tl::ExitException (status);
diff --git a/testdata/klayout_main/main.rb b/testdata/klayout_main/main.rb
index f867f4339..7b452d376 100644
--- a/testdata/klayout_main/main.rb
+++ b/testdata/klayout_main/main.rb
@@ -201,6 +201,14 @@ class KLayoutMain_TestClass < TestBase
     out = `#{self.klayout_bin} -z -r #{File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "test12.rb")} 2>&1`
     assert_equal(out, "Before exit()\n")
 
+    # sys.exit(0) - Python
+    out = `#{self.klayout_bin} -z -r #{File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "test12s.py")} 2>&1`
+    assert_equal(out, "Before exit()\n")
+
+    # quit() - Python (issue #1565)
+    out = `#{self.klayout_bin} -z -r #{File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "test12q.py")} 2>&1`
+    assert_equal(out, "Before quit()\n")
+
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/testdata/klayout_main/test12q.py b/testdata/klayout_main/test12q.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6f829f98b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/klayout_main/test12q.py
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+
+print("Before quit()")
+quit()
+
diff --git a/testdata/klayout_main/test12s.py b/testdata/klayout_main/test12s.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9d007aca5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/klayout_main/test12s.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+
+import sys
+
+print("Before exit()")
+sys.exit(1)
+