diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/ClassLoader/UniversalClassLoader.php b/src/Symfony/Component/ClassLoader/UniversalClassLoader.php
index 70320175d4..3a71343c6b 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/ClassLoader/UniversalClassLoader.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/ClassLoader/UniversalClassLoader.php
@@ -177,9 +177,7 @@ class UniversalClassLoader
      */
     public function loadClass($class)
     {
-        if ('\\' === $class[0]) {
-            $class = substr($class, 1);
-        }
+        $class = ltrim($class, '\\');
 
         if (false !== ($pos = strripos($class, '\\'))) {
             // namespaced class name