diff --git a/plugin/NERD_tree.vim b/plugin/NERD_tree.vim
index 3ec87a0..a2e88ea 100644
--- a/plugin/NERD_tree.vim
+++ b/plugin/NERD_tree.vim
@@ -4106,7 +4106,7 @@ function! s:handleLeftClick()
         "take the line substring manually
         let line = split(getline(line(".")), '\zs')
         let startToCur = ""
-        for i in range(0,virtcol(".")-1)
+        for i in range(0,len(line)-1)
             let startToCur .= line[i]
         endfor