diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
index 456aea4c5d8c..1a64c79232bc 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 , disabledIf
 , isPy3k
 , ensureNewerSourcesForZipFilesHook
+, findutils
 }:
 
 let
@@ -94,7 +95,7 @@ in rec {
     makeSetupHook {
       name = "python-namespaces-hook.sh";
       substitutions = {
-        inherit pythonSitePackages;
+        inherit pythonSitePackages findutils;
       };
     } ./python-namespaces-hook.sh) {};
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/python-namespaces-hook.sh b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/python-namespaces-hook.sh
index 50f21819d176..ebc94e076c81 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/python-namespaces-hook.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/python-namespaces-hook.sh
@@ -17,17 +17,16 @@ pythonNamespacesHook() {
         for pathSegment in ${pathSegments[@]}; do
             constructedPath=${constructedPath}/${pathSegment}
             pathToRemove=${constructedPath}/__init__.py
-            pycachePath=${constructedPath}/__pycache__/__init__*
+            pycachePath=${constructedPath}/__pycache__/
 
+            # remove __init__.py
             if [ -f "$pathToRemove" ]; then
-                echo "Removing $pathToRemove"
-                rm "$pathToRemove"
+                rm -v "$pathToRemove"
             fi
 
-            if [ -f "$pycachePath" ]; then
-                echo "Removing $pycachePath"
-                rm "$pycachePath"
-            fi
+            # remove __pycache__/ entry, can be interpreter specific. E.g. __init__.cpython-38.pyc
+            # use null characters to perserve potential whitespace in filepath
+            @findutils@/bin/find $pycachePath -name '__init__*' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v
         done
     done