diff --git a/spec/shared_examples.rb b/spec/shared_examples.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d92156a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/shared_examples.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+shared_examples_for "a Puppet::Error" do |description|
+  it "with message matching #{description.inspect}" do
+    expect { should have_class_count(1) }.to raise_error(Puppet::Error, description)
+  end
+end