diff --git a/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py b/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
index c58565e3945146..24ee198c355f56 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ def read(self):
                 self.disallow_all = True
             elif err.code >= 400 and err.code < 500:
                 self.allow_all = True
+            err.close()
         else:
             raw = f.read()
             self.parse(raw.decode("utf-8").splitlines())