diff --git a/libpod/runtime.go b/libpod/runtime.go
index 1aea7b4fe6..1daf2855b2 100644
--- a/libpod/runtime.go
+++ b/libpod/runtime.go
@@ -1393,3 +1393,7 @@ func (r *Runtime) SystemCheck(ctx context.Context, options entities.SystemCheckO
 
 	return report, err
 }
+
+func (r *Runtime) GetContainerExitCode(id string) (int32, error) {
+	return r.state.GetContainerExitCode(id)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/api/handlers/utils/containers.go b/pkg/api/handlers/utils/containers.go
index 62af4b45d1..07f8ca7f2f 100644
--- a/pkg/api/handlers/utils/containers.go
+++ b/pkg/api/handlers/utils/containers.go
@@ -130,6 +130,17 @@ func WaitContainerLibpod(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	reports, err := containerEngine.ContainerWait(r.Context(), []string{name}, opts)
 	if err != nil {
 		if errors.Is(err, define.ErrNoSuchCtr) {
+			// Special case: In the common scenario of podman-remote run --rm
+			// the API is required to attach + start + wait to get exit code.
+			// This has the problem that the wait call races against the container
+			// removal from the cleanup process so it may not get the exit code back.
+			// However we keep the exit code around for longer than the container so
+			// we can just look it up here. Of course this only works when we get a
+			// full id as param but podman-remote will do that
+			if code, err := runtime.GetContainerExitCode(name); err == nil {
+				WriteResponse(w, http.StatusOK, strconv.Itoa(int(code)))
+				return
+			}
 			ContainerNotFound(w, name, err)
 			return
 		}