diff --git a/mmdebstrap b/mmdebstrap
index 945f441..4f2f591 100755
--- a/mmdebstrap
+++ b/mmdebstrap
@@ -1154,9 +1154,6 @@ sub setup {
     # clean up temporary configuration file
     unlink "$options->{root}/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00mmdebstrap" or die "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.
-    rmdir "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles" or die "cannot rmdir /var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles: $!";
     # if there is no apt inside the chroot, clean it from the outside
     print STDERR "I: cleaning package lists and apt cache...\n";
     if ($options->{variant} eq 'essential') {
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
index e0a254e..97b0d2a 100755
--- a/test.sh
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -126,10 +126,7 @@ for dist in stable testing unstable; do
 		diff -u status1 status2
 		rm status1 status2
 		sudo rm debian-$dist-debootstrap/var/lib/dpkg/status debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/dpkg/status
-		# this file is only created by apt 1.6 or newer
-		if [ "$dist" != "stable" ]; then
-			sudo rmdir debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles
-		fi
+		sudo rmdir debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles
 		# debootstrap exposes the hosts's kernel version
 		sudo rm debian-$dist-debootstrap/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels \
 			debian-$dist-mm/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels