diff --git a/Lib/doctest.py b/Lib/doctest.py
index 79d91a040c2eeef..2a4b8c7dae01221 100644
--- a/Lib/doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/doctest.py
@@ -1059,7 +1059,8 @@ def _get_test(self, obj, name, module, globs, source_lines):
         if module is None:
             filename = None
         else:
-            filename = getattr(module, '__file__', module.__name__)
+            # __file__ can be None for namespace packages.
+            filename = getattr(module, '__file__', None) or module.__name__
             if filename[-4:] == ".pyc":
                 filename = filename[:-1]
         return self._parser.get_doctest(docstring, globs, name,
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
index f1013f257259641..a5aa39a65c9a326 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
@@ -698,8 +698,12 @@ def test_empty_namespace_package(self):
             finally:
                 support.forget(pkg_name)
                 sys.path.pop()
-            assert doctest.DocTestFinder().find(mod) == []
 
+            include_empty_finder = doctest.DocTestFinder(exclude_empty=False)
+            exclude_empty_finder = doctest.DocTestFinder(exclude_empty=True)
+
+            self.assertEqual(len(include_empty_finder.find(mod)), 1)
+            self.assertEqual(len(exclude_empty_finder.find(mod)), 0)
 
 def test_DocTestParser(): r"""
 Unit tests for the `DocTestParser` class.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-03-24-12-12-27.bpo-36406.mCEkOl.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-03-24-12-12-27.bpo-36406.mCEkOl.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..3d81eb50418b04b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-03-24-12-12-27.bpo-36406.mCEkOl.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Handle namespace packages in :mod:`doctest`. Patch by Karthikeyan Singaravelan.