This meets the problem statement, no question.

But I have an issue with the problem statement itself. I don't use a real shebang line. Instead, my "shebang" line is this instead:

eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec perl -w -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
                  && eval 'exec perl -w -S $0 $argv:q'
                  if 0;

# The above invocation finds perl in the path, wherever it may be
[download]

So fortunately the original problem statement doesn't break it, nor does the intended solution do what it's supposed to.

This probably isn't the place to discuss the merits of a real shebang line, but I'll mention one point anyway. My *nix home directory is automounted on countless network machines, and I don't have the time to manage $PATH on every one, etc.

Unless there is a more elegant way than this, I'll do without a shebang.