diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/lock.sh b/Library/Homebrew/utils/lock.sh
index 4ff8dc060724c6ee8feb46fc5b74facdbcd83898..ab6d2533db4a27c68b25cbed7eac881cf6935761 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/lock.sh
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/lock.sh
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ EOS
 _create_lock() {
   local lock_fd="$1"
   local ruby="/usr/bin/ruby"
-  [[ -x "$ruby" ]] || local ruby="$(which ruby 2>/dev/null)"
+  [[ -x "$ruby" ]] || ruby="$(which ruby 2>/dev/null)"
 
   if [[ -n "$ruby" ]]
   then