diff --git a/test/test-execute/exec-specifier-interpolation.service b/test/test-execute/exec-specifier-interpolation.service
index 3e62662aa9..f128e3c4b3 100644
--- a/test/test-execute/exec-specifier-interpolation.service
+++ b/test/test-execute/exec-specifier-interpolation.service
@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ Description=https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2637
 
 [Service]
 Type=oneshot
-ExecStart=/bin/sh -x -c "perl -e 'exit(!(qq{%%U} eq qq{\\x25U}))'"
+ExecStart=/bin/sh -x -c "! test -x perl || perl -e 'exit(!(qq{%%U} eq qq{\\x25U}))'"