diff --git a/OpenQA/Isotovideo/NeedleDownloader.pm b/OpenQA/Isotovideo/NeedleDownloader.pm
index 34f84ca07a1..2162a599c2a 100644
--- a/OpenQA/Isotovideo/NeedleDownloader.pm
+++ b/OpenQA/Isotovideo/NeedleDownloader.pm
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ sub _add_download {
 
     my $needle_name     = $needle->{name};
     my $latest_update   = $needle->{t_updated};
-    my $needles_dir     = $needle::needles_dir;
+    my $needles_dir     = needle::needles_dir();
     my $download_target = "$needles_dir/$needle_name.$extension";
 
     if (my $target_stat = stat($download_target)) {
diff --git a/needle.pm b/needle.pm
index 1e9c8c12bca..13c99008437 100644
--- a/needle.pm
+++ b/needle.pm
@@ -33,9 +33,10 @@ use OpenQA::Benchmark::Stopwatch;
 
 our %needles;
 our %tags;
-our $needles_dir;
 our $cleanuphandler;
 
+my $needles_dir;
+
 sub is_click_point_valid {
     my ($click_point) = @_;
     return (ref $click_point eq 'HASH'
@@ -340,6 +341,10 @@ sub init {
     return $needles_dir;
 }
 
+sub needles_dir { $needles_dir; }
+
+sub set_needles_dir { ($needles_dir) = @_; }
+
 sub tags {
     my ($wanted)  = @_;
     my @wanted    = split(/ /, $wanted);
diff --git a/t/01-test_needle.t b/t/01-test_needle.t
index e1e6e55e3cb..41ca84b3e8e 100755
--- a/t/01-test_needle.t
+++ b/t/01-test_needle.t
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ subtest 'needle::init accepts custom NEEDLES_DIR within working directory and ot
 };
 
 subtest 'click point' => sub {
-    $needle::needles_dir = $misc_needles_dir;
+    needle::set_needles_dir($misc_needles_dir);
 
     my $needle = needle->new('click-point.json');
     is_deeply($needle->{area}->[0]->{click_point}, {xpos => 2, ypos => 4}, 'click point parsed');
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ subtest 'click point' => sub {
 };
 
 subtest 'workaround property' => sub {
-    $needle::needles_dir = $misc_needles_dir;
+    needle::set_needles_dir($misc_needles_dir);
 
     my $workaround_string_needle     = needle->new('check-workaround-bsc1234567-20190522.json');
     my $workaround_hash_needle       = needle->new('check-workaround-hash-20190522.json');
diff --git a/t/02-test_ocr.t b/t/02-test_ocr.t
index cd70e908dd9..8848d6ced70 100755
--- a/t/02-test_ocr.t
+++ b/t/02-test_ocr.t
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ unless (which('tesseract')) {
 
 needle::init;
 
-my $img1   = tinycv::read("$needle::needles_dir/bootmenu.test.png");
+my $img1   = tinycv::read(needle::needles_dir() . '/bootmenu.test.png');
 my $needle = needle->new('bootmenu-ocr.ref.json');
 my $res    = $img1->search($needle);
 ok(defined $res, 'ocr match 1');
diff --git a/t/21-needle-downloader.t b/t/21-needle-downloader.t
index 3da1e6ba1e4..998a8fa87da 100755
--- a/t/21-needle-downloader.t
+++ b/t/21-needle-downloader.t
@@ -23,8 +23,9 @@ $user_agent_mock->mock(get => sub {
 });
 
 # setup needle directory
-my $needles_dir = $needle::needles_dir = path(tempdir, 'needles_dir');
+my $needles_dir = path(tempdir, 'needles_dir');
 ok(make_path($needles_dir), 'create test needle dir under ' . $needles_dir);
+needle::set_needles_dir($needles_dir);
 
 subtest 'deduce URL for needle download from test variable OPENQA_URL' => sub {
     $bmwqemu::vars{OPENQA_URL} = 'https://openqa1-opensuse';