diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/mvel/MvelScriptEngineService.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/mvel/MvelScriptEngineService.java
index f73cc379019..3fe33049255 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/mvel/MvelScriptEngineService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/mvel/MvelScriptEngineService.java
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ public class MvelScriptEngineService extends AbstractComponent implements Script
 
     @Override
     public Object compile(String script) {
-        return MVEL.compileExpression(script, new ParserContext(parserConfiguration));
+        return MVEL.compileExpression(script.trim(), new ParserContext(parserConfiguration));
     }
 
     @Override