diff --git a/libexec/pyenv-version-file b/libexec/pyenv-version-file
index 91d8b0d3..8b1fe30b 100755
--- a/libexec/pyenv-version-file
+++ b/libexec/pyenv-version-file
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ target_dir="$1"
 
 find_local_version_file() {
   local root="$1"
+  # Nonexistent paths are UB as of this writing.
+  # Relative ones cause a failure but absolute ones don't
+  [[ $root != /* ]] && root=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$root" && pwd)
   while ! [[ "$root" =~ ^//[^/]*$ ]]; do
     if [ -f "${root}/.python-version" ]; then
       echo "${root}/.python-version"
diff --git a/test/version-file.bats b/test/version-file.bats
index e2fb941c..3c0d40a2 100644
--- a/test/version-file.bats
+++ b/test/version-file.bats
@@ -73,3 +73,15 @@ create_file() {
   run pyenv-version-file "$PWD"
   assert_failure ""
 }
+
+@test "walks up beyond cwd for a relative path" {
+  create_file ".python-version"
+  mkdir -p project/subdir
+  cd project
+  # Run with CPU-time limit because this used to loop forever
+  run bash -c 'ulimit -t 5; pyenv-version-file .'
+  assert_success "${PYENV_TEST_DIR}/.python-version"
+
+  run pyenv-version-file ./subdir
+  assert_success "${PYENV_TEST_DIR}/.python-version"
+}