diff --git a/mesonbuild/mesondata.py b/mesonbuild/mesondata.py
index 50a88857172a..4d53a492f442 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/mesondata.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/mesondata.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 import importlib.resources
 from pathlib import PurePosixPath, Path
+import sys
 import typing as T
 
 if T.TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -24,13 +25,16 @@ def write_once(self, path: Path) -> None:
             path.write_text(data, encoding='utf-8')
 
     def write_to_private(self, env: 'Environment') -> Path:
-        try:
-            resource = importlib.resources.files('mesonbuild') / self.path
-            if isinstance(resource, Path):
-                return resource
-        except AttributeError:
-            # fall through to python 3.7 compatible code
-            pass
+        if sys.version_info >= (3, 9):
+            try:
+                # The issue that mypy/pyright see here is caused by a bug in typeshed:
+                # https://github.com/python/typeshed/pull/15108
+                resource = importlib.resources.files('mesonbuild') / self.path  # type: ignore[operator]
+                if isinstance(resource, Path):
+                    return resource
+            except AttributeError:
+                # fall through to python 3.7 compatible code
+                pass
 
         out_file = Path(env.scratch_dir) / 'data' / self.path.name
         out_file.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
diff --git a/run_mypy.py b/run_mypy.py
index 5823e090be93..48a75b1802a7 100755
--- a/run_mypy.py
+++ b/run_mypy.py
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
     'mesonbuild/interpreter/interpreterobjects.py',
     'mesonbuild/interpreter/type_checking.py',
     'mesonbuild/machinefile.py',
+    'mesonbuild/mesondata.py',
     'mesonbuild/mcompile.py',
     'mesonbuild/mdevenv.py',
     'mesonbuild/mconf.py',