diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 2fc08daacb..0c20d1b932 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Sat Mar 13 11:14:26 2010  Shugo Maeda  <shugo@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* load.c (rb_get_expanded_load_path): expand paths if any item in $:
+	  is not a string.
+
 Sat Mar 13 10:16:32 2010  Shugo Maeda  <shugo@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* load.c (rb_get_expanded_load_path): does not expand paths if all
diff --git a/load.c b/load.c
index 5f69fd3d56..95be55ff67 100644
--- a/load.c
+++ b/load.c
@@ -41,10 +41,8 @@ rb_get_expanded_load_path(void)
     long i;
 
     for (i = 0; i < RARRAY_LEN(load_path); ++i) {
-	VALUE str = RARRAY_PTR(load_path)[i];
-	if (TYPE(str) != T_STRING)
-	    RB_GC_GUARD(str) = rb_get_path(str);
-	if (!rb_is_absolute_path(RSTRING_PTR(str)))
+	VALUE str = rb_check_string_type(RARRAY_PTR(load_path)[i]);
+	if (NIL_P(str) || !rb_is_absolute_path(RSTRING_PTR(str)))
 	    goto relative_path_found;
     }
     return load_path;