lib/PublicInbox/WWW.pm | 2 +-
 t/cgi.t                | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/WWW.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/WWW.pm
index 430e6b19a02075aeb9c71f6bfd9f5b7ac1c3e782..62e4ca43511fc4962cbba6b59b0cdab18444fd99 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/WWW.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/WWW.pm
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ 	my ($ctx, $inbox, $mid) = @_;
 	my $ret = invalid_inbox($ctx, $inbox);
 	return $ret if $ret;
 
-	$ctx->{mid} = $mid = uri_unescape($mid);
+	$ctx->{mid} = $mid;
 	if ($mid =~ /\A[a-f0-9]{40}\z/) {
 		# this is horiffically wasteful for legacy URLs:
 		if ($mid = mid2blob($ctx)) {
diff --git a/t/cgi.t b/t/cgi.t
index 092ad8c7ca05a4f38040bd2b35efb71fa2ebca3e..77409660d96d279305520eebfad083b74288e959 100644
--- a/t/cgi.t
+++ b/t/cgi.t
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ EOF
 	$im->add($reply);
 	$im->done;
 
-	my $res = cgi_run("/test/slashy%2fasdf\@example.com/raw");
+	my $res = cgi_run("/test/slashy/asdf\@example.com/raw");
 	like($res->{body}, qr/Message-Id: <\Q$slashy_mid\E>/,
 		"slashy mid raw hit");