diff --git a/lib/rubygems/package_task.rb b/lib/rubygems/package_task.rb
index b355c2b5dd..4c993f1c09 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/package_task.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/package_task.rb
@@ -22,11 +22,6 @@
 
 require 'rubygems'
 require 'rubygems/package'
-begin
-  gem 'rake'
-rescue Gem::LoadError
-end
-
 require 'rake/packagetask'
 
 ##