lib/PublicInbox/MID.pm | 5 +++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/MID.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/MID.pm
index 02ac7095dd1f39503f75568554b93e510dbad091..8ca3c5797e314e6440aaf36ebc1c1fc4b7134e7c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/MID.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/MID.pm
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ sub mid_clean {
 	my ($mid) = @_;
 	defined($mid) or die "no Message-ID";
 	# MDA->precheck did more checking for us
-	$mid =~ s/\A\s*<?//;
-	$mid =~ s/>?\s*\z//;
+	if ($mid =~ /<([^>]+)>/) {
+		$mid = $1;
+	}
 	$mid;
 }