diff --git a/src/lxc/lxc-ls.in b/src/lxc/lxc-ls.in
index 25a3926cc5..dc2b2ba8df 100755
--- a/src/lxc/lxc-ls.in
+++ b/src/lxc/lxc-ls.in
@@ -311,8 +311,10 @@ def get_containers(fd=None, base="/", root=False):
                         memory_ram = 0
 
                     try:
-                        memory_swap = int(container.get_cgroup_item(
-                            "memory.memsw.usage_in_bytes")) - memory_ram
+                        memory_stat = container.get_cgroup_item("memory.stat")
+                        beg = memory_stat.find("\nswap ") + 6
+                        end = memory_stat[beg:].find("\n") + len(memory_stat[:beg])
+                        memory_swap = int(memory_stat[beg:end])
                     except:
                         memory_swap = 0
                 else: