diff --git a/scripts/rpc.py b/scripts/rpc.py
index 6a1d0a8e2..9ee9a6989 100755
--- a/scripts/rpc.py
+++ b/scripts/rpc.py
@@ -1812,5 +1812,9 @@ Format: 'user:u1 secret:s1 muser:mu1 msecret:ms1,user:u2 secret:s2 muser:mu2 mse
     args.client = rpc.client.JSONRPCClient(args.server_addr, args.port, args.timeout, log_level=getattr(logging, args.verbose.upper()))
     if hasattr(args, 'func'):
         call_rpc_func(args)
+    elif sys.stdin.isatty():
+        # No arguments and no data piped through stdin
+        parser.print_help()
+        exit(1)
     else:
         execute_script(parser, args.client, sys.stdin)