diff --git a/lib/Dialect/HW/InstanceImplementation.cpp b/lib/Dialect/HW/InstanceImplementation.cpp
index 3927d44058c2..02eecbf2c8b4 100644
--- a/lib/Dialect/HW/InstanceImplementation.cpp
+++ b/lib/Dialect/HW/InstanceImplementation.cpp
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ instance_like_impl::getReferencedModule(const HWSymbolCache *cache,
     if (auto *result = cache->getDefinition(moduleName))
       return result;
 
-  auto topLevelModuleOp = instanceOp->getParentOfType<ModuleOp>();
-  return topLevelModuleOp.lookupSymbol(moduleName.getValue());
+  return SymbolTable::lookupNearestSymbolFrom(instanceOp, moduleName);
 }
 
 LogicalResult instance_like_impl::verifyReferencedModule(
diff --git a/test/Dialect/HW/errors.mlir b/test/Dialect/HW/errors.mlir
index 598cea6f8732..66414fced552 100644
--- a/test/Dialect/HW/errors.mlir
+++ b/test/Dialect/HW/errors.mlir
@@ -393,3 +393,17 @@ hw.module @struct(in %a: !hw.struct<foo: i8, bar: i8, foo: i8, baz: i8, bar: i8>
 // expected-error @+2 {{duplicate field name 'foo' in hw.union type}}
 // expected-error @+1 {{duplicate field name 'bar' in hw.union type}}
 hw.module @union(in %a: !hw.union<foo: i8, bar: i8, foo: i8, baz: i8, bar: i8>) {}
+
+// -----
+
+// Test that nested symbol tables fail in the correct way when trying to use an
+// instance to escape its containing table.
+
+hw.module @Foo () {}
+
+builtin.module @Nested {
+  hw.module @Bar () {
+    // expected-error @+1 {{Cannot find module definition 'Foo'}}
+    hw.instance "inst" @Foo () -> ()
+  }
+}