diff --git a/src/ceph.in b/src/ceph.in
index 3e70d8e0ad0..f55f8c7df17 100755
--- a/src/ceph.in
+++ b/src/ceph.in
@@ -654,7 +654,7 @@ def main():
     if len(childargs) >= 2 and \
         childargs[0] in ['mon', 'osd'] and \
         childargs[1] == 'tell':
-        print >> sys.stderr, '"{0} tell" is deprecated; try "tell {0}.<id>" instead (id can be "*") '.format(childargs[0])
+        print >> sys.stderr, '"{0} tell" is deprecated; try "tell {0}.<id> <command> [options...]" instead (id can be "*") '.format(childargs[0])
         return 1
 
     if childargs in [['mon'], ['osd']]:
@@ -772,7 +772,9 @@ def main():
             childargs = injectargs
         if not len(childargs):
             print >> sys.stderr, \
-                'Cannot use \'tell\' with interactive mode'
+                'Cannot use \'tell\' with interactive mode.', \
+                'For an interactive shell,', \
+                'please start "{0}" without non-option arguments.'.format(sys.argv[0])
             return errno.EINVAL
 
     # fetch JSON sigs from command