diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1eb84ee..f8b0f59 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ Provides
 * Formatting based on the latest Puppetlabs Style Guide
 * Syntax highlighting compatible with puppet 4.x
   * by default, highlights errors: mixing spaces and tabs and bad names. If you
-    don't want this highlighting, add `let g:puppet_display_errors = v:false`
-    (or really any value that's not `v:true`) to your vimrc.
+    don't want this highlighting, add `let g:puppet_display_errors = 0` to your
+    vimrc.
 * Automatic => alignment
   * If you don't like that, add `let g:puppet_align_hashes = 0` to your vimrc.
 * Ctags support
diff --git a/ftplugin/puppet.vim b/ftplugin/puppet.vim
index 8042cd8..6fc8967 100644
--- a/ftplugin/puppet.vim
+++ b/ftplugin/puppet.vim
@@ -22,10 +22,6 @@ setlocal commentstring=#\ %s
 
 setlocal formatexpr=puppet#format#Format()
 
-if !exists('g:puppet_display_errors')
-  let g:puppet_display_errors = v:true
-endif
-
 let b:undo_ftplugin = '
     \ setlocal tabstop< tabstop< softtabstop< shiftwidth< expandtab<
     \| setlocal keywordprg< iskeyword< comments< commentstring<
diff --git a/syntax/puppet.vim b/syntax/puppet.vim
index 1c224d1..04f3fcf 100644
--- a/syntax/puppet.vim
+++ b/syntax/puppet.vim
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ endif
 let s:cpo_sav = &cpo
 set cpo&vim
 
+if !exists('g:puppet_display_errors')
+  let g:puppet_display_errors = 1
+endif
+
 syn cluster puppetNotTop contains=@puppetExtendedStringSpecial,@puppetRegexpSpecial,puppetTodo
 
 syn match puppetSpaceError display excludenl "\s\+$"
@@ -282,7 +286,7 @@ hi def link puppetFunction        Function
 hi def link puppetDeprecated      Ignore
 hi def link puppetDebug           Debug
 
-if g:puppet_display_errors ==# v:true
+if g:puppet_display_errors
   hi def link puppetInvalidNumber   Error
   hi def link puppetNameBad         Error
   hi def link puppetSpaceError      Error