diff --git a/pkg_resources/_vendor/jaraco/__init__.py b/pkg_resources/_vendor/jaraco/__init__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb2d..00000000000
diff --git a/tools/vendored.py b/tools/vendored.py
index a921efaee88..a5f3b9f137e 100644
--- a/tools/vendored.py
+++ b/tools/vendored.py
@@ -44,9 +44,6 @@ def rewrite_jaraco(pkg_files, new_root):
     """
     Rewrite imports in jaraco.functools to redirect to vendored copies.
     """
-    # jaraco is a namespace package, but for data to be discovered,
-    # such as in jaraco.txt, it must be a regular package.
-    pkg_files.joinpath('__init__.py').write_text('')
     for file in pkg_files.glob('*.py'):
         text = file.read_text()
         text = re.sub(r' (more_itertools)', rf' {new_root}.\1', text)