diff --git a/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt b/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
index 1236bb1bd70..97da2b14d81 100644
--- a/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
+++ b/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
       "public gem pushes."
   end
 
-  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").reject do |f|
-    f.match(%r{^(test|spec|features)/})
+  spec.files         = Dir.chdir(File.expand_path('..', __FILE__)) do
+    `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").reject { |f| f.match(%r{^(test|spec|features)/}) }
   end
   spec.bindir        = "exe"
   spec.executables   = spec.files.grep(%r{^exe/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }