diff --git a/test/bin.js b/test/bin.js
index 6107ad5506..8930fdf05f 100644
--- a/test/bin.js
+++ b/test/bin.js
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+// skip these tests under instanbul since they're useless
+if (process.env.running_under_istanbul === '1') return;
+
 var readdir = require("fs-readdir-recursive");
 var helper  = require("./_helper");
 var assert  = require("assert");