diff --git a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.l b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.l
index c42edeac451fc809c2581f492cdc2e1741774bf7..dcfdafdc2f1c2f91b0090fc1f573fbdafde236de 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.l
+++ b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.l
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
 
 %{
 #include <errno.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 #include "../perf.h"
 #include "parse-events.h"
 #include "parse-events-bison.h"
@@ -53,9 +56,8 @@ static int str(yyscan_t scanner, int token)
 	return token;
 }
 
-static bool isbpf(yyscan_t scanner)
+static bool isbpf_suffix(char *text)
 {
-	char *text = parse_events_get_text(scanner);
 	int len = strlen(text);
 
 	if (len < 2)
@@ -68,6 +70,17 @@ static bool isbpf(yyscan_t scanner)
 	return false;
 }
 
+static bool isbpf(yyscan_t scanner)
+{
+	char *text = parse_events_get_text(scanner);
+	struct stat st;
+
+	if (!isbpf_suffix(text))
+		return false;
+
+	return stat(text, &st) == 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * This function is called when the parser gets two kind of input:
  *