diff --git a/lib/puppet/util/yaml.rb b/lib/puppet/util/yaml.rb
index d0c37ae77..246080843 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/util/yaml.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/util/yaml.rb
@@ -1,23 +1,24 @@
 require 'yaml'
 
 module Puppet::Util::Yaml
   if defined?(::Psych::SyntaxError)
     YamlLoadExceptions = [::StandardError, ::Psych::SyntaxError]
   else
     YamlLoadExceptions = [::StandardError]
   end
 
   class YamlLoadError < Puppet::Error; end
 
-  def self.load_file(filename)
-    YAML.load_file(filename)
+  def self.load_file(filename, default_value = false)
+    yaml = YAML.load_file(filename)
+    yaml || default_value
   rescue *YamlLoadExceptions => detail
     raise YamlLoadError.new(detail.message, detail)
   end
 
   def self.dump(structure, filename)
     Puppet::Util.replace_file(filename, 0660) do |fh|
       YAML.dump(structure, fh)
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/util/yaml_spec.rb b/spec/unit/util/yaml_spec.rb
index 960388ade..978afb0a2 100644
--- a/spec/unit/util/yaml_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/util/yaml_spec.rb
@@ -1,41 +1,55 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
 require 'puppet/util/yaml'
 
 describe Puppet::Util::Yaml do
   include PuppetSpec::Files
 
   let(:filename) { tmpfile("yaml") }
 
   it "reads a YAML file from disk" do
     write_file(filename, YAML.dump({ "my" => "data" }))
 
     expect(Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file(filename)).to eq({ "my" => "data" })
   end
 
   it "writes data formatted as YAML to disk" do
     Puppet::Util::Yaml.dump({ "my" => "data" }, filename)
 
     expect(Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file(filename)).to eq({ "my" => "data" })
   end
 
   it "raises an error when the file is invalid YAML" do
     write_file(filename, "{ invalid")
 
     expect { Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file(filename) }.to raise_error(Puppet::Util::Yaml::YamlLoadError)
   end
 
   it "raises an error when the file does not exist" do
     expect { Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file("no") }.to raise_error(Puppet::Util::Yaml::YamlLoadError, /No such file or directory/)
   end
 
   it "raises an error when the filename is illegal" do
     expect { Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file("not\0allowed") }.to raise_error(Puppet::Util::Yaml::YamlLoadError, /null byte/)
   end
 
+  context "when the file is empty" do
+    it "returns false" do
+      Puppet::FileSystem::File.new(filename).touch
+
+      expect(Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file(filename)).to be_false
+    end
+
+    it "allows return value to be overridden" do
+      Puppet::FileSystem::File.new(filename).touch
+
+      expect(Puppet::Util::Yaml.load_file(filename, {})).to eq({})
+    end
+  end
+
   def write_file(name, contents)
     File.open(name, "w") do |fh|
       fh.write(contents)
     end
   end
 end