diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 4b647c7c..1879a51e 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@ AC_PREREQ([2.59])
 AC_INIT([bash-completion], [1.99])
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign dejagnu dist-bzip2 -Wall -Werror])
 AC_SUBST(bashcompdir, $sysconfdir/bash_completion.d)
-AC_SUBST(helpersdir, $datadir/bash-completion/helpers)
+AC_SUBST(helpersdir, $sysconfdir/bash_completion.d/helpers)
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile contrib/Makefile helpers/Makefile test/Makefile])
 AC_OUTPUT