diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/readline/readline.inc b/meta/recipes-core/readline/readline.inc
index 35df8b4bb6..1a0a1558df 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/readline/readline.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/readline/readline.inc
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ do_install_append () {
 	oe_libinstall -so -C shlib libreadline ${D}${libdir}
 
 	rmdir ${D}${bindir}
+	rm -rf ${D}${datadir}/${BPN}/*.c
+	rmdir ${D}${datadir}/${BPN} || true
 
 	install -m 0755 -d ${D}${sysconfdir}
 	install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/inputrc ${D}${sysconfdir}/inputrc