lib/PublicInbox/Hval.pm | 3 +--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Hval.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Hval.pm
index 5a869358d1b8029d3e2a0a9f4f386b1d26fa5090..d295f5ce3d29fb8d783e2550e75975fe237fcba7 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Hval.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Hval.pm
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@
 sub new {
 	my ($class, $raw, $href) = @_;
 
-	# we never care about leading/trailing whitespace
-	$raw =~ s/\A\s*//;
+	# we never care about trailing whitespace
 	$raw =~ s/\s*\z//;
 	bless {
 		raw => $raw,