diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1/unstructured/helpers.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1/unstructured/helpers.go
index 2e33283ef22..0f58d66c094 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1/unstructured/helpers.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1/unstructured/helpers.go
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ func NestedStringMap(obj map[string]interface{}, fields ...string) (map[string]s
 		if str, ok := v.(string); ok {
 			strMap[k] = str
 		} else {
-			return nil, false, fmt.Errorf("%v accessor error: contains non-string key in the map: %v is of the type %T, expected string", jsonPath(fields), v, v)
+			return nil, false, fmt.Errorf("%v accessor error: contains non-string value in the map under key %q: %v is of the type %T, expected string", jsonPath(fields), k, v, v)
 		}
 	}
 	return strMap, true, nil