diff --git a/servers/slapd/schema_init.c b/servers/slapd/schema_init.c
index 4061c21fd6..00d86024b6 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/schema_init.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/schema_init.c
@@ -618,8 +618,10 @@ UTF8StringNormalize(
 		q = s;
 	}
 
+#if 0
 	/* cannot end with a space */
 	assert( !ldap_utf8_isspace( LDAP_UTF8_PREV(q) ) );
+#endif
 
 	/* null terminate */
 	*q = '\0';