diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
index 4c640946aa..f28eef0b54 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ def check_conditional(conditional):
 
     try:
         return eval(conditional.replace("\n", "\\n"))
-    except SyntaxError as e:
+    except (NameError, SyntaxError):
         raise errors.AnsibleError("Could not evaluate the expression: " + conditional)
 
 def is_executable(path):