diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index fa6f5f4504..ac8b8e0414 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -25,7 +25,27 @@ int fchmod(int fildes, mode_t mode)
 
 int lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return stat(file_name, buf);
+	int namelen;
+	static char alt_name[PATH_MAX];
+
+	if (!stat(file_name, buf))
+		return 0;
+
+	/* if file_name ended in a '/', Windows returned ENOENT;
+	 * try again without trailing slashes
+	 */
+	if (errno != ENOENT)
+		return -1;
+	namelen = strlen(file_name);
+	if (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] != '/')
+		return -1;
+	while (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] == '/')
+		--namelen;
+	if (!namelen || namelen >= PATH_MAX)
+		return -1;
+	memcpy(alt_name, file_name, namelen);
+	alt_name[namelen] = 0;
+	return stat(alt_name, buf);
 }
 
 /* missing: link, mkstemp, fchmod, getuid (?), gettimeofday */