diff --git a/src/configure.ac b/src/configure.ac
index 58979305b8b..c7baa1770ea 100644
--- a/src/configure.ac
+++ b/src/configure.ac
@@ -1628,7 +1628,7 @@ fi
 AC_MSG_RESULT([$PYTHON_TK_VERSION])
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for site-package location)
-SITEPY="$($PYTHON -c 'import sysconfig; s = sysconfig.get_scheme_names(); m=list(set(("deb_system", "rpm_prefix")) & set(s)); print(sysconfig.get_path("platlib", m.__getitem__(0))) if m else print("/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages");')"
+SITEPY=`$PYTHON -c "import sysconfig; s=sysconfig.get_scheme_names(); print(next((sysconfig.get_path('platlib', m) for m in ('deb_system', 'rpm_prefix') if m in s), '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages'))"`
 AC_MSG_RESULT($SITEPY)
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for working GLU quadrics)