diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
index d1881f3897..33d0f677e5 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
@@ -436,6 +436,11 @@ impl DeleteTenantFlow {
         .await
     }
 
+    /// Check whether background deletion of this tenant is currently in progress
+    pub(crate) fn is_in_progress(tenant: &Tenant) -> bool {
+        tenant.delete_progress.try_lock().is_err()
+    }
+
     async fn prepare(
         tenant: &Arc<Tenant>,
     ) -> Result<tokio::sync::OwnedMutexGuard<Self>, DeleteTenantError> {
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
index b1b46d487b..73967f2949 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
@@ -1410,9 +1410,15 @@ impl TenantManager {
 
         match tenant.current_state() {
             TenantState::Broken { .. } | TenantState::Stopping { .. } => {
-                // If a tenant is broken or stopping, DeleteTenantFlow can
-                // handle it: broken tenants proceed to delete, stopping tenants
-                // are checked for deletion already in progress.
+                // If deletion is already in progress, return success (the semantics of this
+                // function are to rerturn success afterr deletion is spawned in background).
+                // Otherwise fall through and let [`DeleteTenantFlow`] handle this state.
+                if DeleteTenantFlow::is_in_progress(&tenant) {
+                    // The `delete_progress` lock is held: deletion is already happening
+                    // in the bacckground
+                    slot_guard.revert();
+                    return Ok(());
+                }
             }
             _ => {
                 tenant
diff --git a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
index 0e4a58c099..c2c661088b 100644
--- a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
+++ b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
@@ -2449,10 +2449,12 @@ class NeonPageserver(PgProtocol):
                 if cur_line_no < skip_until_line_no:
                     cur_line_no += 1
                     continue
-                if contains_re.search(line):
+                elif contains_re.search(line):
                     # found it!
                     cur_line_no += 1
                     return (line, LogCursor(cur_line_no))
+                else:
+                    cur_line_no += 1
         return None
 
     def tenant_attach(
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_delete.py b/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_delete.py
index a164c7f60a..c115c0375b 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_delete.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_delete.py
@@ -469,7 +469,8 @@ def test_tenant_delete_concurrent(
 ):
     """
     Validate that concurrent delete requests to the same tenant behave correctly:
-    exactly one should succeed.
+    exactly one should execute: the rest should give 202 responses but not start
+    another deletion.
 
     This is a reproducer for https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/issues/5936
     """
@@ -484,14 +485,10 @@ def test_tenant_delete_concurrent(
         run_pg_bench_small(pg_bin, endpoint.connstr())
         last_flush_lsn_upload(env, endpoint, tenant_id, timeline_id)
 
-    CONFLICT_MESSAGE = "Precondition failed: Invalid state Stopping. Expected Active or Broken"
-
     env.pageserver.allowed_errors.extend(
         [
             # lucky race with stopping from flushing a layer we fail to schedule any uploads
             ".*layer flush task.+: could not flush frozen layer: update_metadata_file",
-            # Errors logged from our 4xx requests
-            f".*{CONFLICT_MESSAGE}.*",
         ]
     )
 
@@ -507,7 +504,7 @@ def test_tenant_delete_concurrent(
         return ps_http.tenant_delete(tenant_id)
 
     def hit_remove_failpoint():
-        env.pageserver.assert_log_contains(f"at failpoint {BEFORE_REMOVE_FAILPOINT}")
+        return env.pageserver.assert_log_contains(f"at failpoint {BEFORE_REMOVE_FAILPOINT}")[1]
 
     def hit_run_failpoint():
         env.pageserver.assert_log_contains(f"at failpoint {BEFORE_RUN_FAILPOINT}")
@@ -518,11 +515,14 @@ def test_tenant_delete_concurrent(
 
         # Wait until the first request completes its work and is blocked on removing
         # the TenantSlot from tenant manager.
-        wait_until(100, 0.1, hit_remove_failpoint)
+        log_cursor = wait_until(100, 0.1, hit_remove_failpoint)
+        assert log_cursor is not None
 
-        # Start another request: this should fail when it sees a tenant in Stopping state
-        with pytest.raises(PageserverApiException, match=CONFLICT_MESSAGE):
-            ps_http.tenant_delete(tenant_id)
+        # Start another request: this should succeed without actually entering the deletion code
+        ps_http.tenant_delete(tenant_id)
+        assert not env.pageserver.log_contains(
+            f"at failpoint {BEFORE_RUN_FAILPOINT}", offset=log_cursor
+        )
 
         # Start another background request, which will pause after acquiring a TenantSlotGuard
         # but before completing.
@@ -539,8 +539,10 @@ def test_tenant_delete_concurrent(
 
         # Permit the duplicate background request to run to completion and fail.
         ps_http.configure_failpoints((BEFORE_RUN_FAILPOINT, "off"))
-        with pytest.raises(PageserverApiException, match=CONFLICT_MESSAGE):
-            background_4xx_req.result(timeout=10)
+        background_4xx_req.result(timeout=10)
+        assert not env.pageserver.log_contains(
+            f"at failpoint {BEFORE_RUN_FAILPOINT}", offset=log_cursor
+        )
 
     # Physical deletion should have happened
     assert_prefix_empty(