diff --git a/src/nix-build/nix-build.cc b/src/nix-build/nix-build.cc
index cf628519..a63b3e07 100755
--- a/src/nix-build/nix-build.cc
+++ b/src/nix-build/nix-build.cc
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ void mainWrapped(int argc, char * * argv)
                 // read the shebang to understand which packages to read from. Since
                 // this is handled via nix-shell -p, we wrap our ruby script execution
                 // in ruby -e 'load' which ignores the shebangs.
-                envCommand = (format("exec %1% %2% -e 'load(\"%3%\") -- %4%") % execArgs % interpreter % script % joined.str()).str();
+                envCommand = (format("exec %1% %2% -e 'load(\"%3%\")' -- %4%") % execArgs % interpreter % script % joined.str()).str();
             } else {
                 envCommand = (format("exec %1% %2% %3% %4%") % execArgs % interpreter % script % joined.str()).str();
             }