diff --git a/meta/classes/dpkg-prebuilt.bbclass b/meta/classes/dpkg-prebuilt.bbclass
index 7092670b..c6b66c62 100644
--- a/meta/classes/dpkg-prebuilt.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/dpkg-prebuilt.bbclass
@@ -19,5 +19,8 @@ python do_unpack:prepend() {
 # also breaks inherited (from dpkg-base) dependency on sbuild_chroot
 do_dpkg_build[depends] = "${PN}:do_unpack"
 do_dpkg_build() {
-    true
+    # ensure all packages we got are valid debian packages
+    if [ -n "$(find ${WORKDIR} -maxdepth 1 -name '*.deb' -print -quit)" ]; then
+        dpkg -I ${WORKDIR}/*.deb
+    fi
 }