1 files changed, 3 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/international/mule-cmds.el b/lisp/international/mule-cmds.el
index c70fa7a43a5..0e6f74d200c 100644
--- a/lisp/international/mule-cmds.el
+++ b/lisp/international/mule-cmds.el
@@ -2187,8 +2187,9 @@ See also `locale-charset-language-names', `locale-language-names',
       ;; Use the first of these three environment variables
       ;; that has a nonempty value.
       (let ((vars '("LC_ALL" "LC_CTYPE" "LANG")))
-        (while (and vars (not (setq locale (getenv (car vars)))))
-          (setq vars (cdr vars)))))
+        (while (and vars
+                    (= 0 (length locale))) ; nil or empty string
+          (setq locale (getenv (pop vars))))))
 
     (when locale