What is the best way to check for an undefined property in an ejs template?

(I'm using the node.js package by TJ Holowaychuk)

Example:

var tpl = '<% if (foo) { %>foo defined<% } else { %>foo undefined<% } %>';

console.log(ejs.render(tpl, { locals: { bar: baz } }));

I'd expect this to render foo undefined. It does throw an foo undefined error instead.

I know that this is not supposed to be an issue, since this is expected behavior in the tests. Is there an easy way to avoid this?

The only solution I found is using the hasOwnProperty method.

var tpl = '<% if (hasOwnProperty(foo)) { %>foo defined<% } else { %>foo undefined<% } %>';

console.log(ejs.render(tpl, { locals: { bar: baz} }));

This doesn't throw any errors.

Is there a better way to keep the template clean? Or why does it throw this error?