diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
index a31b34faf0e..5462b94628c 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
@@ -655,7 +655,7 @@ class Runner(object):
 
         cmd = " || ".join(md5s)
         cmd = "%s; %s || (echo \"${rc}  %s\")" % (test, cmd, path)
-        return utils.last_non_blank_line(self._low_level_exec_command(conn, cmd, tmp, sudoable=False)).split()[0]
+        return utils.last_non_blank_line(self._low_level_exec_command(conn, cmd, tmp, sudoable=False))
 
     # *****************************************************
 
@@ -675,7 +675,7 @@ class Runner(object):
         cmd += ' && echo %s' % basetmp
 
         result = self._low_level_exec_command(conn, cmd, None, sudoable=False)
-        return utils.last_non_blank_line(result.split("\n"))[0].strip() + '/'
+        return utils.last_non_blank_line(result).strip() + '/'
 
     # *****************************************************
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils.py b/lib/ansible/utils.py
index 7b2ef864b90..2e1109adfeb 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils.py
@@ -412,7 +412,18 @@ def do_encrypt(result, encrypt, salt_size=None, salt=None):
     return result
 
 def last_non_blank_line(lines):
-    return lines
+    all_lines = lines.splitlines()
+    all_lines.reverse()
+    for line in all_lines:
+        if (len(line) > 0):
+            return line
+
+    return ""  # we shouldn't come here (no lines?) but let's pretend nothing happend
+        # We can't return all lines here because calling code expects only one
+        # line.
+
+def line_needs_filtering(line):
+    return line.startswith('#') or (len(line) == 0)
 
 def filter_leading_garbage(lines):
     return lines