diff --git a/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs b/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
index 46f078d7ea..71100d768c 100644
--- a/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
+++ b/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
@@ -407,6 +407,13 @@ impl SchemeSync for AcpiScheme<'_, '_> {
                     })?;
                 }
             }
+            HandleKind::Thermal | HandleKind::Power => {
+                // Empty placeholder directories. Consumers (thermald,
+                // redbear-upower) iterate them with read_dir and gracefully
+                // handle the empty result. Returning Ok with no entries
+                // is what `read_dir` expects for an existing-but-empty
+                // directory.
+            }
             _ => return Err(Error::new(EIO)),
         }