diff --git a/scrapy/utils/misc.py b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
index d6966be8e..bd400bd30 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/misc.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/misc.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import os
 import re
 import hashlib
 import warnings
+from collections import deque
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from importlib import import_module
 from pkgutil import iter_modules
@@ -184,6 +185,22 @@ def set_environ(**kwargs):
                 os.environ[k] = v
 
 
+def walk_callable(node):
+    """Similar to ``ast.walk``, but walks only function body and skips nested
+    functions defined within the node.
+    """
+    todo = deque([node])
+    walked_func_def = False
+    while todo:
+        node = todo.popleft()
+        if isinstance(node, ast.FunctionDef):
+            if walked_func_def:
+                continue
+            walked_func_def = True
+        todo.extend(ast.iter_child_nodes(node))
+        yield node
+
+
 _generator_callbacks_cache = LocalWeakReferencedCache(limit=128)
 
 
@@ -201,7 +218,7 @@ def is_generator_with_return_value(callable):
 
     if inspect.isgeneratorfunction(callable):
         tree = ast.parse(dedent(inspect.getsource(callable)))
-        for node in ast.walk(tree):
+        for node in walk_callable(tree):
             if isinstance(node, ast.Return) and not returns_none(node):
                 _generator_callbacks_cache[callable] = True
                 return _generator_callbacks_cache[callable]
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_misc/test_return_with_argument_inside_generator.py b/tests/test_utils_misc/test_return_with_argument_inside_generator.py
index bdbec1beb..2be38620c 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_misc/test_return_with_argument_inside_generator.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_misc/test_return_with_argument_inside_generator.py
@@ -29,9 +29,28 @@ class UtilsMiscPy3TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             yield 1
             yield from g()
 
+        def m():
+            yield 1
+
+            def helper():
+                return 0
+
+            yield helper()
+
+        def n():
+            yield 1
+
+            def helper():
+                return 0
+
+            yield helper()
+            return 2
+
         assert is_generator_with_return_value(f)
         assert is_generator_with_return_value(g)
         assert not is_generator_with_return_value(h)
         assert not is_generator_with_return_value(i)
         assert not is_generator_with_return_value(j)
         assert not is_generator_with_return_value(k)  # not recursive
+        assert not is_generator_with_return_value(m)
+        assert is_generator_with_return_value(n)