diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Options.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Options.hs
index e8bff693e..40c881c82 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Options.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Options.hs
@@ -342,11 +342,13 @@ getHledgerAddonCommands = map (drop (length progname + 1)) `fmap` getHledgerProg
 getHledgerProgramsInPath :: IO [String]
 getHledgerProgramsInPath = do
   pathdirs <- splitOn ":" `fmap` getEnv "PATH"
-  pathexes <- concat `fmap` mapM getDirectoryContents pathdirs
+  pathexes <- concat `fmap` mapM getDirectoryContentsSafe pathdirs
   return $ nub $ sort $ filter (isRight . parsewith hledgerprog) pathexes
     where
       hledgerprog = string progname >> char '-' >> many1 (letter <|> char '-') >> eof
 
+getDirectoryContentsSafe d = getDirectoryContents d `catch` (\_ -> return [])
+
 -- | Convert possibly encoded option values to regular unicode strings.
 decodeRawOpts = map (\(name,val) -> (name, fromPlatformString val))