diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index dd0eae797fca7931b5eff4c93800b2d82d5a43db..69032f0c40de93d2ca6a9b47e0f4c8dca167b5f9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 	* src/text.c (break_line): Initialize a variable to avoid a compiler
 	warning, rename it to be more apt, add a comment, tweak some others,
 	and remove an unneeded 'if'.
+	* src/char.c (move_mbleft): Avoid a compiler warning (int → size_t),
+	rename the variable, and another, and straighten out the logic.
 
 2014-04-13  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* proto.h, global.c, rcfile.c: Remove the unused parameter 'menu'
diff --git a/src/chars.c b/src/chars.c
index 58bfee95f97f68fbe8f97f767b2126bc0d31e3a7..7e502bbf2eaaa55d7e64b3b69beca854a1e3797f 100644
--- a/src/chars.c
+++ b/src/chars.c
@@ -472,22 +472,18 @@ int parse_mbchar(const char *buf, char *chr, size_t *col)
  * before the one at pos. */
 size_t move_mbleft(const char *buf, size_t pos)
 {
-    size_t pos_prev = pos;
+    size_t before = 0, char_len = 0;
 
     assert(buf != NULL && pos <= strlen(buf));
 
     /* There is no library function to move backward one multibyte
      * character.  Here is the naive, O(pos) way to do it. */
-    while (TRUE) {
-	int buf_mb_len = parse_mbchar(buf + pos - pos_prev, NULL, NULL);
-
-	if (pos_prev <= buf_mb_len)
-	    break;
-
-	pos_prev -= buf_mb_len;
+    while (before < pos) {
+	char_len = parse_mbchar(buf + before, NULL, NULL);
+	before += char_len;
     }
 
-    return pos - pos_prev;
+    return before - char_len;
 }
 
 /* Return the index in buf of the beginning of the multibyte character