diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/529-manual-test-play-for-lookups.yml b/changelogs/fragments/529-manual-test-play-for-lookups.yml
index c5830b7a..ea99b717 100644
--- a/changelogs/fragments/529-manual-test-play-for-lookups.yml
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/529-manual-test-play-for-lookups.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 ---
 trivial:
   - tests - added manual test playbook for lookup plugins
+
+bugfixes:
+  - lookup - fixed issue where searching for datacenter contents would throw an exception instead of returning expected results
diff --git a/plugins/plugin_utils/lookup.py b/plugins/plugin_utils/lookup.py
index cc458784..3a0185a3 100644
--- a/plugins/plugin_utils/lookup.py
+++ b/plugins/plugin_utils/lookup.py
@@ -129,15 +129,6 @@ async def search_for_object_moid_top_down(self):
         path_parts = [_part for _part in object_path.split("/") if _part]
 
         for index, path_part in enumerate(path_parts):
-            if not self.active_filters.get("datacenters"):
-                datacenter_moid = await self.get_object_moid_by_name_and_type(
-                    path_part, "datacenter"
-                )
-                if self.object_type == "datacenter" or not datacenter_moid:
-                    return datacenter_moid
-                self.active_filters["datacenters"] = datacenter_moid
-                continue
-
             if index == len(path_parts) - 1:
                 # were at the end of the object path. Either return the object, or return
                 # all of the objects it contains (for example, the children inside of a folder)
@@ -153,7 +144,7 @@ async def search_for_object_moid_top_down(self):
                 await self.process_intermediate_path_part(path_part)
                 continue
 
-        raise Exception("here4")
+        raise AnsibleLookupError("No objects could be found due to an invalid search path")
 
     async def process_intermediate_path_part(self, intermediate_object_name):
         """
@@ -171,6 +162,13 @@ async def process_intermediate_path_part(self, intermediate_object_name):
         Returns:
             str or None, a single MoID or none if nothing was found
         """
+        if not self.active_filters.get('datacenter'):
+            result = await self.get_object_moid_by_name_and_type(
+                intermediate_object_name, "datacenter"
+            )
+            self.active_filters["datacenters"] = result
+            return result
+
         if self.object_type == "vm":
             result = await self.get_object_moid_by_name_and_type(
                 intermediate_object_name, "resource_pool"
diff --git a/tests/manual/vmware_lookup/tasks/main.yml b/tests/manual/vmware_lookup/tasks/main.yml
index 8ff8ab08..4e3298f1 100644
--- a/tests/manual/vmware_lookup/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tests/manual/vmware_lookup/tasks/main.yml
@@ -3,13 +3,17 @@
   ansible.builtin.assert:
     that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.datacenter_moid', '/' + vcenter_datacenter, **connection_args)
 
-- name: Lookup Cluster
+- name: Lookup Clusters In Datacenter
   ansible.builtin.assert:
-    that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.cluster_moid', '/' + vcenter_datacenter + '/' + vcenter_cluster, **connection_args)
+    that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.cluster_moid', '/' + vcenter_datacenter + '/', **connection_args)
+
+- name: Lookup Datastores In Datacenter
+  ansible.builtin.assert:
+    that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.datastore_moid', '/' + vcenter_datacenter + '/', **connection_args)
 
-- name: Lookup Cluster Contents
+- name: Lookup Cluster
   ansible.builtin.assert:
-    that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.cluster_moid',  '/' + vcenter_datacenter + '/' + vcenter_cluster + '/', **connection_args)
+    that: lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.cluster_moid', '/' + vcenter_datacenter + '/' + vcenter_cluster, **connection_args)
 
 - name: Lookup Datastores
   ansible.builtin.assert: