diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
index 9d42cb797..aa5e05230 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ retry() {
 	while [[ $attempt -lt $maxAttempts ]]; do			
 		attempt=$((attempt+1))
 		echo "Executing command with retry support: $cmd"
-		output=$($cmd)
+		output=$("$cmd")
 		exitcode=$?
 		echo "Results: $output ($exitcode)"
 		if [ -n "$expectedOutput" ]; then