diff --git a/coverage.sh b/coverage.sh
index 6de1ee9..013f0fa 100755
--- a/coverage.sh
+++ b/coverage.sh
@@ -156,8 +156,6 @@ grep -v '^Priority: ' /tmp/debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/dpkg/status > status2
 diff -u status1 status2
 rm status1 status2
 rm /tmp/debian-$dist-debootstrap/var/lib/dpkg/status /tmp/debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/dpkg/status
-# this file is only created by apt 1.6 or newer
-rmdir /tmp/debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles
 # debootstrap exposes the hosts's kernel version
 rm /tmp/debian-$dist-debootstrap/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels \
 	/tmp/debian-$dist-mm/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels
diff --git a/mmdebstrap b/mmdebstrap
index 1a162f4..2b29651 100755
--- a/mmdebstrap
+++ b/mmdebstrap
@@ -1667,18 +1667,18 @@ sub setup {
 
     # clean up temporary configuration file
     unlink "$options->{root}/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00mmdebstrap" or error "failed to unlink /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00mmdebstrap: $!";
-    # apt since 1.6 creates the auxfiles directory. If apt inside the chroot
-    # is older than that, then it will not know how to clean it.
-    if (-e "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles") {
-	rmdir "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles" or die "cannot rmdir /var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles: $!";
-    }
-
     info "cleaning package lists and apt cache...";
     run_apt_progress({
 	    ARGV => ['apt-get', '--option', 'Dir::Etc::SourceList=/dev/null', 'update'],
 	});
     run_apt_progress({ ARGV => ['apt-get', 'clean'] });
 
+    # apt since 1.6 creates the auxfiles directory. If apt inside the chroot
+    # is older than that, then it will not know how to clean it.
+    if (-e "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles") {
+	rmdir "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles" or die "cannot rmdir /var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles: $!";
+    }
+
     if (defined $options->{qemu} and $options->{mode} ne 'proot' and $options->{mode} ne 'fakechroot') {
 	unlink "$options->{root}/usr/bin/qemu-$options->{qemu}-static" or error "cannot unlink /usr/bin/qemu-$options->{qemu}-static: $!";
     }