  The anti-triplet charmed baryon decays with the light scalar mesons are
rarely measured, whereas the recent observation of the Cabibbo-favored
$\Lambda_c^+\to \Lambda\eta\pi^+$ decay hints a possible $\Lambda_c^+\to\Lambda
a_0(980)^+,a_0(980)^+\to \eta\pi^+$ process. We hence study the
$\Lambda_c^+\to\Lambda a_0(980)^+$ decay. Particularly, it is found that the
final state interaction can give a significant contribution, where
$\Sigma^{+}(1385)$ and $\eta$ in $\Lambda_c^+\to \Sigma^{+}(1385)\eta$ by
exchanging a charged pion are transformed as $\Lambda$ and $a_0(980)^+$,
respectively. Accordingly, we predict ${\cal B}(\Lambda_c^+\to\Lambda
a_0(980)^+)=(1.7^{+2.8}_{-1.0}\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-3}$, accessible to the
BESIII, BELLEII and LHCb experiments.
