diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8138155c..373fa3f8 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ CVS code -
 	- If wcwidth() returns -1 for the character passed in, treat the
 	  character as having the width of Unicode U+FFFD (Replacement
 	  Character) instead of having zero width, since there are
-	  display problems that crop up with the latter approach. (DLR)
+	  display problems that sometimes crop up with the latter
+	  approach. (DLR)
 - files.c:
   read_file()
 	- Remove apparently unneeded logic to handle a case where
diff --git a/src/chars.c b/src/chars.c
index 531ffad0..ef704422 100644
--- a/src/chars.c
+++ b/src/chars.c
@@ -299,8 +299,10 @@ int mbwidth(const char *c)
 
 	width = wcwidth(wc);
 
-	if (width == -1)
-	    width = wcwidth(bad_wchar);
+	if (width == -1) {
+	    wc = bad_wchar;
+	    width = wcwidth(wc);
+	}
 
 	return width;
     } else