diff --git a/spec/acceptance/concat_spec.rb b/spec/acceptance/concat_spec.rb
index ad959cb34..2f7d4e3b2 100644
--- a/spec/acceptance/concat_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acceptance/concat_spec.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     groupname = 'system'
     scriptname = 'concatfragments.rb'
     vardir = default['puppetvardir']
-    if vardir == ''
+    if vardir.nil? or vardir == ''
       vardir = '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache'
     end
   when 'Darwin'
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
     groupname = 'wheel'
     scriptname = 'concatfragments.rb'
     vardir = default['puppetvardir']
-    if vardir == ''
+    if vardir.nil? or vardir == ''
       vardir = '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache'
     end
   when 'windows'
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
     groupname = 'root'
     scriptname = 'concatfragments.rb'
     vardir = default['puppetvardir']
-    if vardir == ''
+    if vardir.nil? or vardir == ''
       vardir = '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache'
     end
   else
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
     groupname = 'root'
     scriptname = 'concatfragments.rb'
     vardir = default['puppetvardir']
-    if vardir == ''
+    if vardir.nil? or vardir == ''
       vardir = '/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache'
     end
 end