diff --git a/contrib/one-true-awk/b.c b/contrib/one-true-awk/b.c
index 01b91f3f67b..96ecdd23af5 100644
--- a/contrib/one-true-awk/b.c
+++ b/contrib/one-true-awk/b.c
@@ -841,7 +841,7 @@ int relex(void)		/* lexical analyzer for reparse */
 				if (cc->cc_name != NULL && prestr[1 + cc->cc_namelen] == ':' &&
 				    prestr[2 + cc->cc_namelen] == ']') {
 					prestr += cc->cc_namelen + 3;
-					for (i = 0; i < NCHARS; i++) {
+					for (i = 1; i < NCHARS; i++) {
 						if (!adjbuf((char **) &buf, &bufsz, bp-buf+1, 100, (char **) &bp, "relex2"))
 						    FATAL("out of space for reg expr %.10s...", lastre);
 						if (cc->cc_func(i)) {