diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/fix_find_default.yml b/changelogs/fragments/fix_find_default.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b49a88da829aed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/fix_find_default.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - find - fix default pattern when use_regex is true (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/50067).
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/find.py b/lib/ansible/modules/find.py
index b831e86eec3562..1aebaf9be0dc1d 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/find.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/find.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
               first letter of any of those words (e.g., "1w").
         type: str
     patterns:
-        default: '*'
+        default: []
         description:
             - One or more (shell or regex) patterns, which type is controlled by C(use_regex) option.
             - The patterns restrict the list of files to be returned to those whose basenames match at
@@ -41,18 +41,19 @@
             - This parameter expects a list, which can be either comma separated or YAML. If any of the
               patterns contain a comma, make sure to put them in a list to avoid splitting the patterns
               in undesirable ways.
+            - Defaults to '*' when C(use_regex=False), or '.*' when C(use_regex=True).
         type: list
-        aliases: [ pattern ]
         elements: str
+        aliases: [ pattern ]
     excludes:
         description:
             - One or more (shell or regex) patterns, which type is controlled by C(use_regex) option.
             - Items whose basenames match an C(excludes) pattern are culled from C(patterns) matches.
               Multiple patterns can be specified using a list.
         type: list
+        elements: str
         aliases: [ exclude ]
         version_added: "2.5"
-        elements: str
     contains:
         description:
             - A regular expression or pattern which should be matched against the file content.
@@ -62,8 +63,8 @@
             - List of paths of directories to search. All paths must be fully qualified.
         type: list
         required: true
-        aliases: [ name, path ]
         elements: str
+        aliases: [ name, path ]
     file_type:
         description:
             - Type of file to select.
@@ -360,7 +361,7 @@ def main():
     module = AnsibleModule(
         argument_spec=dict(
             paths=dict(type='list', required=True, aliases=['name', 'path'], elements='str'),
-            patterns=dict(type='list', default=['*'], aliases=['pattern'], elements='str'),
+            patterns=dict(type='list', default=[], aliases=['pattern'], elements='str'),
             excludes=dict(type='list', aliases=['exclude'], elements='str'),
             contains=dict(type='str'),
             file_type=dict(type='str', default="file", choices=['any', 'directory', 'file', 'link']),
@@ -379,6 +380,16 @@ def main():
 
     params = module.params
 
+    # Set the default match pattern to either a match-all glob or
+    # regex depending on use_regex being set.  This makes sure if you
+    # set excludes: without a pattern pfilter gets something it can
+    # handle.
+    if not params['patterns']:
+        if params['use_regex']:
+            params['patterns'] = ['.*']
+        else:
+            params['patterns'] = ['*']
+
     filelist = []
 
     if params['age'] is None:
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/find/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/targets/find/tasks/main.yml
index 6879404d8884a7..d38daf44aa1139 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/find/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/find/tasks/main.yml
@@ -139,3 +139,25 @@
           # dir contents are considered until the depth exceeds the requested depth
           # there are 6 files/directories in the requested depth and 4 that exceed it by 1
           - files_with_depth.examined == 10
+
+- name: exclude with regex
+  find:
+    paths: "{{ output_dir_test }}"
+    recurse: yes
+    use_regex: true
+    exclude: .*\.ogg
+  register: find_test3
+# Note that currently sane ways of doing this with map() or
+# selectattr() aren't available in centos6 era jinja2 ...
+- set_fact:
+    find_test3_list: >-
+      [ {% for f in find_test3.files %}
+      {{ f.path }}
+      {% if not loop.last %},{% endif %}
+      {% endfor %}
+      ]
+- debug: var=find_test3_list
+- name: assert we skipped the ogg file
+  assert:
+    that:
+      - '"{{ output_dir_test }}/e/f/g/h/8.ogg" not in find_test3_list'