diff --git a/src/XrdCl/XrdClXRootDMsgHandler.cc b/src/XrdCl/XrdClXRootDMsgHandler.cc
index d31f050e520..9a1f433bfb9 100644
--- a/src/XrdCl/XrdClXRootDMsgHandler.cc
+++ b/src/XrdCl/XrdClXRootDMsgHandler.cc
@@ -1225,9 +1225,7 @@ namespace XrdCl
       if( pStatus.code == errErrorResponse )
       {
         st->errNo = rsp->body.error.errnum;
-        // omit the last character as the string returned from the server
-        // (acording to protocol specs) should be null-terminated
-        std::string errmsg( rsp->body.error.errmsg, rsp->hdr.dlen-5 );
+        std::string errmsg( rsp->body.error.errmsg, rsp->hdr.dlen-4 );
         if( st->errNo == kXR_noReplicas && !pLastError.IsOK() )
           errmsg += " Last seen error: " + pLastError.ToString();
         st->SetErrorMessage( errmsg );