diff --git a/t/base/lex.t b/t/base/lex.t
index 75529d8146ac..4c4981d94dc2 100644
--- a/t/base/lex.t
+++ b/t/base/lex.t
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!./perl
 
-print "1..65\n";
+print "1..66\n";
 
 $x = 'x';
 
@@ -323,3 +323,6 @@ eval '/(?{print <<END
 ok 65 - here-doc in re-eval in string eval
 END
 })/';
+
+eval 'print qq ;ok 66 - eval ending with semicolon\n;'
+  or print "not ok 66 - eval ending with semicolon\n";
diff --git a/toke.c b/toke.c
index 456aea2d32fe..98d6e3422f3e 100644
--- a/toke.c
+++ b/toke.c
@@ -758,8 +758,7 @@ Perl_lex_start(pTHX_ SV *line, PerlIO *rsfp, U32 flags)
 	parser->linestr = flags & LEX_START_COPIED
 			    ? SvREFCNT_inc_simple_NN(line)
 			    : newSVpvn_flags(s, len, SvUTF8(line));
-	if (!len || s[len-1] != ';')
-	    sv_catpvs(parser->linestr, "\n;");
+	sv_catpvs(parser->linestr, "\n;");
     } else {
 	parser->linestr = newSVpvs("\n;");
     }