diff --git a/moses/TranslationModel/ProbingPT/line_splitter.cpp b/moses/TranslationModel/ProbingPT/line_splitter.cpp
index 1eeeb1899..5539d0f33 100644
--- a/moses/TranslationModel/ProbingPT/line_splitter.cpp
+++ b/moses/TranslationModel/ProbingPT/line_splitter.cpp
@@ -2,41 +2,48 @@
 
 line_text splitLine(StringPiece textin)
 {
-  const char delim[] = " ||| ";
+  const char delim[] = "|||";
   line_text output;
 
   //Tokenize
   util::TokenIter<util::MultiCharacter> it(textin, util::MultiCharacter(delim));
   //Get source phrase
-  output.source_phrase = *it;
+  output.source_phrase = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.source_phrase=" << output.source_phrase << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get target_phrase
   it++;
-  output.target_phrase = *it;
+  output.target_phrase = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.target_phrase=" << output.target_phrase << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get probabilities
   it++;
-  output.prob = *it;
+  output.prob = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.prob=" << output.prob << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get WordAllignment
   it++;
   if (it == util::TokenIter<util::MultiCharacter>::end()) return output;
-  output.word_align = *it;
+  output.word_align = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.word_align=" << output.word_align << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get count
   it++;
   if (it == util::TokenIter<util::MultiCharacter>::end()) return output;
-  output.counts = *it;
+  output.counts = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.counts=" << output.counts << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get sparse_score
   it++;
   if (it == util::TokenIter<util::MultiCharacter>::end()) return output;
-  output.sparse_score = *it;
+  output.sparse_score = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.sparse_score=" << output.sparse_score << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   //Get property
   it++;
   if (it == util::TokenIter<util::MultiCharacter>::end()) return output;
-  output.property = *it;
+  output.property = Trim(*it);
+  //std::cerr << "output.property=" << output.property << "AAAA" << std::endl;
 
   return output;
 }
diff --git a/util/string_piece.hh b/util/string_piece.hh
index 9c4798217..428808692 100644
--- a/util/string_piece.hh
+++ b/util/string_piece.hh
@@ -257,6 +257,14 @@ inline bool operator>=(const StringPiece& x, const StringPiece& y) {
   return !(x < y);
 }
 
+inline StringPiece Trim(const StringPiece& str, const std::string dropChars = " \t\n\r")
+{
+  StringPiece::size_type startPos = str.find_first_not_of(dropChars);
+  StringPiece::size_type endPos = str.find_last_not_of(dropChars);
+  StringPiece ret = str.substr(startPos, endPos - startPos + 1);
+  return ret;
+}
+
 // allow StringPiece to be logged (needed for unit testing).
 inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& o, const StringPiece& piece) {
   return o.write(piece.data(), static_cast<std::streamsize>(piece.size()));