diff --git a/scanpy/plotting/tools/paga.py b/scanpy/plotting/tools/paga.py
index 2409d698bd..5e2013db62 100644
--- a/scanpy/plotting/tools/paga.py
+++ b/scanpy/plotting/tools/paga.py
@@ -866,7 +866,7 @@ def paga_path(
         groups_key = adata.uns['paga']['groups']
     groups_names = adata.obs[groups_key].cat.categories
 
-    if 'dpt_pseudotime' is not adata.obs.keys():
+    if 'dpt_pseudotime' not in adata.obs.keys():
         raise ValueError(
             '`pl.paga_path` requires computation of a pseudotime `tl.dpt` '
             'for ordering at single-cell resolution')