diff --git a/salt/utils/verify.py b/salt/utils/verify.py
index 05827d1800..f7d36efae2 100644
--- a/salt/utils/verify.py
+++ b/salt/utils/verify.py
@@ -360,8 +360,7 @@ def check_path_traversal(path, user='root', skip_perm_errors=False):
                 if user != current_user:
                     msg += ' Try running as user {0}.'.format(user)
                 else:
-                    msg += ' Please give {0} read permissions.'.format(user,
-                                                                       tpath)
+                    msg += ' Please give {0} read permissions.'.format(user)
 
             # We don't need to bail on config file permission errors
             # if the CLI