diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/resource.rb b/Library/Homebrew/resource.rb
index 278b7a2f2d..1c6c5b2342 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/resource.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/resource.rb
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ class Resource
       raise TypeError, "version '#{val.inspect}' should be a string"
     end
 
-    version.null? ? nil : version
+    version unless version.null?
   end
 
   # A resource containing a Go package.