diff --git a/java/client/src/com/thoughtworks/selenium/webdriven/SeleneseCommand.java b/java/client/src/com/thoughtworks/selenium/webdriven/SeleneseCommand.java
index 98d48d800275a..1c2bba39dfa86 100644
--- a/java/client/src/com/thoughtworks/selenium/webdriven/SeleneseCommand.java
+++ b/java/client/src/com/thoughtworks/selenium/webdriven/SeleneseCommand.java
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ public void setDefaultTimeout(long defaultTimeout) {
   }
 
   protected long getTimeout(String timeout) {
+    // Of course, a non-breaking space doesn't count as whitespace.
+    timeout = timeout.replace('\u00A0',' ').trim();
     return "".equals(timeout) ? defaultTimeout : Long.valueOf(timeout);
   }