diff --git a/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb b/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
index a5382466..a02272b5 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ module Jekyll
     # Returns Hash of post data
     def data
       @data ||= post.data.dup
-      @data.delete("layout") if @data.has_key?("layout")
+      @data.delete("layout")
       @data
     end