diff --git a/lib/puppet/util/rails/reference_serializer.rb b/lib/puppet/util/rails/reference_serializer.rb
index 8c4f1aaff..63f109cec 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/util/rails/reference_serializer.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/util/rails/reference_serializer.rb
@@ -1,18 +1,32 @@
 
 module Puppet::Util::ReferenceSerializer
     def unserialize_value(val)
-        if val =~ /^--- [!:]/
+        case val
+        when /^--- /
             YAML.load(val)
+        when "true"
+            true
+        when "false"
+            false
         else
             val
         end
     end
 
     def serialize_value(val)
-        if val.is_a?(Puppet::Parser::Resource::Reference)
+        case val
+        when Puppet::Parser::Resource::Reference
             YAML.dump(val)
+        when true, false
+            # The database does this for us, but I prefer the
+            # methods be their exact inverses.
+            # Note that this means quoted booleans get returned
+            # as actual booleans, but there doesn't appear to be
+            # a way to fix that while keeping the ability to
+            # search for parameters set to true.
+            val.to_s
         else
             val
         end
     end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/spec/unit/util/reference_serializer.rb b/spec/unit/util/reference_serializer.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c3da45a36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/unit/util/reference_serializer.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../spec_helper'
+require 'puppet/util/rails/reference_serializer'
+
+class SerializeTester
+    include Puppet::Util::ReferenceSerializer
+end
+
+describe Puppet::Util::ReferenceSerializer do
+    before do
+        @tester = SerializeTester.new
+    end
+
+    describe "when serializing" do
+        it "should yaml-dump resource references" do
+            ref = Puppet::Parser::Resource::Reference.new(:type => "file", :title => "/foo")
+            @tester.serialize_value(ref).should =~ /^---/
+        end
+
+        it "should convert the boolean 'true' into the string 'true'" do
+            @tester.serialize_value(true).should == "true"
+        end
+
+        it "should convert the boolean 'false' into the string 'false'" do
+            @tester.serialize_value(false).should == "false"
+        end
+
+        it "should return all other values" do
+            @tester.serialize_value("foo").should == "foo"
+        end
+    end
+
+    describe "when unserializing" do
+        it "should yaml-load values that look like yaml" do
+            yaml = YAML.dump(%w{a b c})
+            @tester.unserialize_value(yaml).should == %w{a b c}
+        end
+
+        it "should convert the string 'true' into the boolean 'true'" do
+            @tester.unserialize_value("true").should == true
+        end
+
+        it "should convert the string 'false' into the boolean 'false'" do
+            @tester.unserialize_value("false").should == false
+        end
+
+        it "should return all other values" do
+            @tester.unserialize_value("foo").should == "foo"
+        end
+    end
+end