diff --git a/lib/puppet/provider/glance_image/openstack.rb b/lib/puppet/provider/glance_image/openstack.rb
index 8ce6b77d..cb4114e6 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/provider/glance_image/openstack.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/provider/glance_image/openstack.rb
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ Puppet::Type.type(:glance_image).provide(
 
     begin
       attrs = self.class.request('image', 'create', opts)
-      properties = self.class.pythondict2hash(attrs[:properties]) rescue nil
+      properties = self.class.parse_python_dict(attrs[:properties])
       @property_hash = {
         :ensure           => :present,
         :name             => attrs[:name],
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ Puppet::Type.type(:glance_image).provide(
     list = request('image', 'list', '--long')
     list.collect do |image|
       attrs = request('image', 'show', image[:id])
-      properties = pythondict2hash(attrs[:properties]) rescue nil
+      properties = parse_python_dict(attrs[:properties])
       new(
         :ensure           => :present,
         :name             => attrs[:name],
@@ -183,9 +183,6 @@ Puppet::Type.type(:glance_image).provide(
   private
 
   def self.exclude_readonly_props(props)
-    if props == nil
-      return nil
-    end
     hidden = [
       'os_hash_algo',
       'os_hash_value',
@@ -199,9 +196,6 @@ Puppet::Type.type(:glance_image).provide(
   end
 
   def self.exclude_owner_specified_props(props)
-    if props == nil
-      return nil
-    end
     rv = props.select { |k, v| not k.start_with?('owner_specified.') }
     return rv
   end
@@ -213,10 +207,6 @@ Puppet::Type.type(:glance_image).provide(
     }.compact
   end
 
-  def self.pythondict2hash(input)
-    return JSON.parse(input.gsub(/'/, '"').gsub(/False/,'false').gsub(/True/,'true'))
-  end
-
   def fetch(uri_str, proxy_host = nil, proxy_port = nil, limit = 10)
     raise RuntimeError, 'Too many HTTP redirections' if limit == 0
 
diff --git a/spec/unit/provider/glance_image_spec.rb b/spec/unit/provider/glance_image/openstack_spec.rb
similarity index 96%
rename from spec/unit/provider/glance_image_spec.rb
rename to spec/unit/provider/glance_image/openstack_spec.rb
index 6b0a4d40..de948d50 100644
--- a/spec/unit/provider/glance_image_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/provider/glance_image/openstack_spec.rb
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ min_disk="1024"
 min_ram="1024"
 name="image1"
 owner="5a9e521e17014804ab8b4e8b3de488a4"
+properties="{}"
 protected="False"
 schema="/v2/schemas/image"
 size="13287936"
@@ -79,18 +80,6 @@ visibility="public"
 
     end
 
-    describe '#pythondict2hash' do
-      it 'should return a hash with key-value when provided with a python dict' do
-        s = "{'key': 'value', 'key2': 'value2'}"
-        expect(provider_class.pythondict2hash(s)).to eq({"key"=>"value", "key2"=>"value2"})
-      end
-
-      it 'should convert boolean to json compatible hash when provided with a python dict' do
-        s = "{'key': 'value', 'key2': False}"
-        expect(provider_class.pythondict2hash(s)).to eq({"key"=>"value", "key2"=>false})
-      end
-    end
-
     describe '.instances' do
       it 'finds every image' do
         allow(provider.class).to receive(:openstack)
@@ -415,6 +404,7 @@ file="/v2/images/8801c5b0-c505-4a15-8ca3-1d2383f8c015/file"
 id="8801c5b0-c505-4a15-8ca3-1d2383f8c015"
 name="image1"
 owner="5a9e521e17014804ab8b4e8b3de488a4"
+properties="{}"
 protected="False"
 schema="/v2/schemas/image"
 size="13287936"
@@ -451,6 +441,7 @@ visibility="public"
 name="image1"
 owner="None"
 tags="testtag"
+properties="{}"
 protected="False"
 size="1270"
 status="active"