diff --git a/hoe-monkeypatches.rb b/hoe-monkeypatches.rb
index 317a45cfe0..2be5c293fe 100644
--- a/hoe-monkeypatches.rb
+++ b/hoe-monkeypatches.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 #
-#  this file currently empty
+#  this patch works around https://github.com/seattlerb/hoe/issues/103
 #
+require "hoe"
+
+class Hoe
+  alias_method :old_parse_urls, :parse_urls
+
+  def parse_urls(text)
+    return urls unless urls.empty?
+    old_parse_urls(text)
+  end
+end