diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/cache/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/cache/__init__.py
index b1aecde99a..2a129e922a 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/cache/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/cache/__init__.py
@@ -33,24 +33,17 @@ except ImportError:
 class FactCache(MutableMapping):
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+
         self._plugin = cache_loader.get(C.CACHE_PLUGIN)
         if not self._plugin:
-            raise AnsibleError('Unable to load the facts cache plugin (%s)\n'
-                               'Check fact cache config options :\n'
-                               'Current values:\n'
-                               '    fact_caching: %s\n'
-                               '    fact_caching_connection: %s' %
-                               (C.CACHE_PLUGIN, C.CACHE_PLUGIN, C.CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION))
+            raise AnsibleError('Unable to load the facts cache plugin (%s).' % (C.CACHE_PLUGIN))
 
         # Backwards compat: self._display isn't really needed, just import the global display and use that.
         self._display = display
 
-        if self._plugin is None:
-            display.warning("Failed to load fact cache plugins")
-            return
 
     def __getitem__(self, key):
-        if key not in self:
+        if not self._plugin.contains(key):
             raise KeyError
         return self._plugin.get(key)
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/vars/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/vars/__init__.py
index 374065eed3..b3369af2ca 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/vars/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/vars/__init__.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ from ansible.template import Templar
 from ansible.utils.listify import listify_lookup_plugin_terms
 from ansible.utils.vars import combine_vars
 from ansible.vars.unsafe_proxy import wrap_var
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native
 
 try:
     from __main__ import display
@@ -95,7 +96,6 @@ class VariableManager:
 
     def __init__(self):
 
-        self._fact_cache = FactCache()
         self._nonpersistent_fact_cache = defaultdict(dict)
         self._vars_cache = defaultdict(dict)
         self._extra_vars = defaultdict(dict)
@@ -106,6 +106,14 @@ class VariableManager:
         self._omit_token = '__omit_place_holder__%s' % sha1(os.urandom(64)).hexdigest()
         self._options_vars = defaultdict(dict)
 
+        # bad cache plugin is not fatal error
+        try:
+            self._fact_cache = FactCache()
+        except AnsibleError as e:
+            display.warning(to_native(e))
+            # fallback to a dict as in memory cache
+            self._fact_cache = {}
+
     def __getstate__(self):
         data = dict(
             fact_cache = self._fact_cache,