diff --git a/Distribution/Simple/Utils.hs b/Distribution/Simple/Utils.hs
index e5524d09506b38319ecb31c488510e0fe121308f..e5d2b7f7c7109729491efea52cd72cf4c95e2750 100644
--- a/Distribution/Simple/Utils.hs
+++ b/Distribution/Simple/Utils.hs
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ findPackageDesc _verbosity dir
  = do files <- getDirectoryContents dir
       case filter ((==".cabal") . takeExtension) files of
         []          -> noDesc
-        [cabalFile] -> return (dir </> cabalFile)
+        [cabalFile] -> return cabalFile
         multiple    -> multiDesc multiple
 
   where