diff --git a/lib/puppet/error.rb b/lib/puppet/error.rb
index 34da17219..c31c360a2 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/error.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/error.rb
@@ -1,61 +1,62 @@
 module Puppet
   # The base class for all Puppet errors. It can wrap another exception
   class Error < RuntimeError
     attr_accessor :original
     def initialize(message, original=nil)
       super(message)
       @original = original
     end
   end
 
   module ExternalFileError
     # This module implements logging with a filename and line number. Use this
     # for errors that need to report a location in a non-ruby file that we
     # parse.
     attr_accessor :line, :file, :pos
 
     # May be called with 3 arguments for message, file, line, and exception, or
     # 4 args including the position on the line.
     #
     def initialize(message, file=nil, line=nil, pos=nil, original=nil)
       if pos.kind_of? Exception
         original = pos
         pos = nil
       end
       super(message, original)
-      @file = file
+      @file = file unless (file.is_a?(String) && file.empty?)
       @line = line
       @pos = pos
     end
     def to_s
       msg = super
+      @file = nil if (@file.is_a?(String) && @file.empty?)
       if @file and @line and @pos
         "#{msg} at #{@file}:#{@line}:#{@pos}"
       elsif @file and @line
         "#{msg} at #{@file}:#{@line}"
       elsif @line and @pos
           "#{msg} at line #{@line}:#{@pos}"
       elsif @line
         "#{msg} at line #{@line}"
       elsif @file
         "#{msg} in #{@file}"
       else
         msg
       end
     end
   end
 
   class ParseError < Puppet::Error
     include ExternalFileError
   end
 
   class ResourceError < Puppet::Error
     include ExternalFileError
   end
 
   # An error class for when I don't know what happened.  Automatically
   # prints a stack trace when in debug mode.
   class DevError < Puppet::Error
     include ExternalFileError
   end
 end