diff --git a/bin/ansible b/bin/ansible
index b82a18d3d3e..7ba615dbc0a 100755
--- a/bin/ansible
+++ b/bin/ansible
@@ -19,6 +19,17 @@
 
 ########################################################
 
+__requires__ = ['ansible']
+try:
+    import pkg_resources
+except Exception:
+    # Use pkg_resources to find the correct versions of libraries and set
+    # sys.path appropriately when there are multiversion installs.  But we
+    # have code that better expresses the errors in the places where the code
+    # is actually used (the deps are optional for many code paths) so we don't
+    # want to fail here.
+    pass
+
 import os
 import sys
 
diff --git a/bin/ansible-playbook b/bin/ansible-playbook
index 93645903f79..d25a3710d87 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-playbook
+++ b/bin/ansible-playbook
@@ -19,7 +19,15 @@
 #######################################################
 
 __requires__ = ['ansible']
-import pkg_resources
+try:
+    import pkg_resources
+except Exception:
+    # Use pkg_resources to find the correct versions of libraries and set
+    # sys.path appropriately when there are multiversion installs.  But we
+    # have code that better expresses the errors in the places where the code
+    # is actually used (the deps are optional for many code paths) so we don't
+    # want to fail here.
+    pass
 
 import sys
 import os
diff --git a/bin/ansible-vault b/bin/ansible-vault
index 3079b31d9ed..22cfc0e1487 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-vault
+++ b/bin/ansible-vault
@@ -19,7 +19,15 @@
 # http://docs.ansible.com/playbooks_vault.html for more details.
 
 __requires__ = ['ansible']
-import pkg_resources
+try:
+    import pkg_resources
+except Exception:
+    # Use pkg_resources to find the correct versions of libraries and set
+    # sys.path appropriately when there are multiversion installs.  But we
+    # have code that better expresses the errors in the places where the code
+    # is actually used (the deps are optional for many code paths) so we don't
+    # want to fail here.
+    pass
 
 import os
 import sys