diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f484801638..b94cd5633c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ all::
 # have been written to the final string if enough space had been available.
 #
 # Define FREAD_READS_DIRECTORIES if you are on a system which succeeds
-# when attempting to read from an fopen'ed directory.
+# when attempting to read from an fopen'ed directory (or even to fopen
+# it at all).
 #
 # Define NO_OPENSSL environment variable if you do not have OpenSSL.
 # This also implies BLK_SHA1.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 11d083fbe0..2f55237e65 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -922,9 +922,9 @@ AC_CACHE_CHECK([whether system succeeds to read fopen'ed directory],
 [
 AC_RUN_IFELSE(
 	[AC_LANG_PROGRAM([AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT],
-		[[char c;
+		[[
 		FILE *f = fopen(".", "r");
-		return f && fread(&c, 1, 1, f)]])],
+		return f)]])],
 	[ac_cv_fread_reads_directories=no],
 	[ac_cv_fread_reads_directories=yes])
 ])