diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/copy.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/copy.py
index 8178d7eb0b2..3b2f8c5b0ba 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/copy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/copy.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
         if os.path.isdir(source):
             # Get the amount of spaces to remove to get the relative path.
             if source_trailing_slash:
-                sz = len(source) + 1
+                sz = len(source)
             else:
                 sz = len(source.rsplit('/', 1)[0]) + 1