diff --git a/docs/source/markdown/podman-wait.1.md.in b/docs/source/markdown/podman-wait.1.md.in
index 218ca04ba1..0d41ec82cf 100644
--- a/docs/source/markdown/podman-wait.1.md.in
+++ b/docs/source/markdown/podman-wait.1.md.in
@@ -21,8 +21,9 @@ such as those created by `podman kube play`, the containers may be repeatedly
 exiting and restarting, possibly with different exit codes. `podman wait` will
 only display and detect the first exit after the wait command was started.
 
-When running a container with podman run --rm wait should wait for the
-container to be fully removed as well before it returns.
+When running a container with podman run --rm wait does not wait for the
+container to be fully removed. To wait for the removal of a container use
+`--condition=removing`.
 
 ## OPTIONS
 
diff --git a/libpod/container_api.go b/libpod/container_api.go
index 1efa82800c..8a309c4cf9 100644
--- a/libpod/container_api.go
+++ b/libpod/container_api.go
@@ -546,10 +546,7 @@ func (c *Container) WaitForExit(ctx context.Context, pollInterval time.Duration)
 		c.lock.Lock()
 		defer c.lock.Unlock()
 
-		// Note this is one of the rare cases where we do not like to use syncContainer() as it does read the exit file
-		// We like to avoid that here because that means we might read it before container cleanup run and possible
-		// removed the container
-		if err := c.runtime.state.UpdateContainer(c); err != nil {
+		if err := c.syncContainer(); err != nil {
 			if errors.Is(err, define.ErrNoSuchCtr) {
 				// if the container is not valid at this point as it was deleted,
 				// check if the exit code was recorded in the db.
@@ -705,6 +702,13 @@ func (c *Container) WaitForConditionWithInterval(ctx context.Context, waitTimeou
 				if len(wantedStates) > 0 {
 					state, err := c.State()
 					if err != nil {
+						// If the we wait for removing and the container is removed do not return this as error.
+						// This allows callers to actually wait for the ctr to be removed.
+						if wantedStates[define.ContainerStateRemoving] &&
+							(errors.Is(err, define.ErrNoSuchCtr) || errors.Is(err, define.ErrCtrRemoved)) {
+							trySend(-1, nil)
+							return
+						}
 						trySend(-1, err)
 						return
 					}
diff --git a/test/system/800-config.bats b/test/system/800-config.bats
index 2ff116ae27..d099cde825 100644
--- a/test/system/800-config.bats
+++ b/test/system/800-config.bats
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ EOF
     # container completes fast, and the cleanup *did* happen properly
     # the container is now gone.  So, we need to ignore "no such
     # container" errors from podman wait.
-    CONTAINERS_CONF="$conf_tmp" run_podman '?' wait "$cid"
+    CONTAINERS_CONF="$conf_tmp" run_podman '?' wait --condition=removing "$cid"
     if [[ $status != 0 ]]; then
         is "$output" "Error:.*no such container" "unexpected error from podman wait"
     fi