diff --git a/guix/scripts/repl.scm b/guix/scripts/repl.scm
index 3c79e89f8d..7d4e474e92 100644
--- a/guix/scripts/repl.scm
+++ b/guix/scripts/repl.scm
@@ -178,7 +178,10 @@ call THUNK."
        (lambda ()
          (set-program-arguments script)
          (set-user-module)
-         (load-in-vicinity "." (car script)))))
+
+         ;; When passed a relative file name, 'load-in-vicinity' searches the
+         ;; file in %LOAD-PATH.  Thus, pass (getcwd) instead of ".".
+         (load-in-vicinity (getcwd) (car script)))))
 
     (when (null? script)
       ;; Start REPL
diff --git a/tests/guix-repl.sh b/tests/guix-repl.sh
index e1c2b8241f..d4ebb5f6c6 100644
--- a/tests/guix-repl.sh
+++ b/tests/guix-repl.sh
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ EOF
 
 test "`guix repl "$tmpfile"`" = "coreutils"
 
+# Make sure that the file can also be loaded when passed as a relative file
+# name.
+(cd "$(dirname "$tmpfile")"; test "$(guix repl "$(basename "$tmpfile")")" = "coreutils")
+
 
 cat > "$module_dir/foo.scm"<<EOF
 (define-module (foo)