diff --git a/fragments.py b/fragments.py
index 83b9238..cf3ffcb 100644
--- a/fragments.py
+++ b/fragments.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def defragmentize(html):
       class_list += " %s" % FRAGMENT_CLASS
 
     fragment.set('class',  class_list)
-    fragment.text = re.sub(r"\s*%s\s*" % re.escape(FRAGMENT_TAG), '', fragment.text).strip()
+    fragment.text = re.sub(r"\s*%s\s*" % re.escape(FRAGMENT_TAG), '', fragment.text)
 
   return etree.tostring(dom, method='html', encoding='utf-8',
     pretty_print=True).decode('utf-8')