diff --git a/sample/occur.rb b/sample/occur.rb
index 8bb09e15ad..4ec6ae479b 100644
--- a/sample/occur.rb
+++ b/sample/occur.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # word occurrence listing
 # usege: ruby occur.rb file..
 freq = Hash.new(0)
-while gets()
-  for word in split(/\W+/)
+while line = gets()
+  for word in line.split(/\W+/)
     freq[word] += 1
   end
 end