diff --git a/lib/puppet/provider/package/yumhelper.py b/lib/puppet/provider/package/yumhelper.py
index 1142401b9..962b96ce4 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/provider/package/yumhelper.py
+++ b/lib/puppet/provider/package/yumhelper.py
@@ -1,37 +1,39 @@
 # Python helper script to query for the packages that have
 # pending updates. Called by the yum package provider
 #
 # (C) 2007 Red Hat Inc.
 # David Lutterkort <dlutter @redhat.com>
 
 import yum
 import sys
 
 OVERRIDE_OPTS = {
     'debuglevel': 0,
     'errorlevel': 0,
     'logfile': '/dev/null'
 }
 
-def pkg_lists():
-    my = yum.YumBase()
+def pkg_lists(my):
     my.doConfigSetup()
 
     for k in OVERRIDE_OPTS.keys():
         if hasattr(my.conf, k):
             setattr(my.conf, k, OVERRIDE_OPTS[k])
         else:
             my.conf.setConfigOption(k, OVERRIDE_OPTS[k])
 
     my.doTsSetup()
     my.doRpmDBSetup()
     return my.doPackageLists('updates')
 
 try:
-    ypl = pkg_lists()
+    try:
+        my = yum.YumBase()
+        ypl = pkg_lists(my)
+        for pkg in ypl.updates:
+            print "_pkg %s %s %s %s %s" % (pkg.name, pkg.epoch, pkg.version, pkg.release, pkg.arch)
+    finally:
+        my.closeRpmDB()
 except IOError, e:
     print "_err IOError %d %s" % (e.errno, e)
     sys.exit(1)
-    
-for pkg in ypl.updates:
-    print "_pkg %s %s %s %s %s" % (pkg.name, pkg.epoch, pkg.version, pkg.release, pkg.arch)