diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtils.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtils.java
index e860a9ff6..45e6c8490 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtils.java
@@ -1186,10 +1186,12 @@ public class FileUtils {
             return "";
         }
 
-        // if leading's path ends with a slash, it will be stripped by
-        // normalize - we always add one so we never think /foo was a
-        // parent directory of /foobar
-        l += File.separator;
+        // ensure that l ends with a /
+        // so we never think /foo was a parent directory of /foobar
+        if (!l.endsWith("/")) {
+            l += File.separator;
+        }
+
         if (p.startsWith(l)) {
             return p.substring(l.length());
         } else {
diff --git a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtilsTest.java b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtilsTest.java
index 763e5fb26..340d11cbf 100644
--- a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtilsTest.java
+++ b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtilsTest.java
@@ -421,6 +421,15 @@ public class FileUtilsTest extends TestCase {
                                               new File("/foo/bar/")));
         assertEquals("", fu.removeLeadingPath(new File("/foo/bar/"),
                                               new File("/foo/bar")));
+
+        String expected = "foo/bar".replace('\\', File.separatorChar)
+            .replace('/', File.separatorChar);
+        assertEquals(expected, fu.removeLeadingPath(new File("/"),
+                                                    new File("/foo/bar")));
+        assertEquals(expected, fu.removeLeadingPath(new File("c:/"),
+                                                    new File("c:/foo/bar")));
+        assertEquals(expected, fu.removeLeadingPath(new File("c:\\"),
+                                                    new File("c:\\foo\\bar")));
     }
 
     /**