diff --git a/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt b/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
index eddb8b4a30..c46e2c3480 100644
--- a/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
+++ b/lib/bundler/templates/newgem/newgem.gemspec.tt
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   # The `git ls-files -z` loads the files in the RubyGem that have been added into git.
   spec.files = Dir.chdir(File.expand_path(__dir__)) do
     `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").reject do |f|
-      f.match(%r{\A(?:(?:test|spec|features)/|\.(?:git|travis|circleci)|appveyor)})
+      (f == __FILE__) || f.match(%r{\A(?:(?:test|spec|features)/|\.(?:git|travis|circleci)|appveyor)})
     end
   end
   spec.bindir = "exe"
diff --git a/spec/bundler/commands/newgem_spec.rb b/spec/bundler/commands/newgem_spec.rb
index 56fea008ec..29d04e94d8 100644
--- a/spec/bundler/commands/newgem_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/bundler/commands/newgem_spec.rb
@@ -588,6 +588,14 @@ RSpec.describe "bundle gem" do
       expect(bundled_app("#{gem_name}/lib/#{require_path}.rb").read).to match(/class Error < StandardError; end$/)
     end
 
+    it "does not include the gemspec file in files" do
+      bundle "gem #{gem_name}"
+
+      bundler_gemspec = Bundler::GemHelper.new(gemspec_dir).gemspec
+
+      expect(bundler_gemspec.files).not_to include("#{gem_name}.gemspec")
+    end
+
     it "runs rake without problems" do
       bundle "gem #{gem_name}"