diff --git a/zerver/templatetags/app_filters.py b/zerver/templatetags/app_filters.py
index 5330f4914f..57586075e5 100644
--- a/zerver/templatetags/app_filters.py
+++ b/zerver/templatetags/app_filters.py
@@ -118,26 +118,25 @@ def render_markdown_path(markdown_file_path: str,
 
     jinja = engines['Jinja2']
 
-    if pure_markdown:
-        # For files such as /etc/zulip/terms.md where we don't intend
-        # to use Jinja2 template variables, we still try to load the
-        # template using Jinja2 (in case the file path isn't absolute
-        # and does happen to be in Jinja's recognized template
-        # directories), and if that fails, we try to load it directly
-        # from disk.
-        try:
-            markdown_string = jinja.env.loader.get_source(jinja.env, markdown_file_path)[0]
-        except TemplateNotFound:
-            with open(markdown_file_path) as fp:
-                markdown_string = fp.read()
-
-        rendered_html = md_engine.convert(markdown_string)
-    else:
+    try:
         # By default, we do both Jinja2 templating and markdown
         # processing on the file, to make it easy to use both Jinja2
         # context variables and markdown includes in the file.
         markdown_string = jinja.env.loader.get_source(jinja.env, markdown_file_path)[0]
-        html = md_engine.convert(markdown_string)
-        rendered_html = jinja.from_string(html).render(context)
+    except TemplateNotFound as e:
+        if pure_markdown:
+            # For files such as /etc/zulip/terms.md where we don't intend
+            # to use Jinja2 template variables, we still try to load the
+            # template using Jinja2 (in case the file path isn't absolute
+            # and does happen to be in Jinja's recognized template
+            # directories), and if that fails, we try to load it directly
+            # from disk.
+            with open(markdown_file_path) as fp:
+                markdown_string = fp.read()
+        else:
+            raise e
+
+    html = md_engine.convert(markdown_string)
+    rendered_html = jinja.from_string(html).render(context)
 
     return mark_safe(rendered_html)