diff --git a/libexec/rbenv b/libexec/rbenv
index 795a2e9a..1ad36c95 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv
+++ b/libexec/rbenv
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ RBENV_HOOK_PATH="${RBENV_HOOK_PATH}:/usr/local/etc/rbenv.d:/etc/rbenv.d:/usr/lib
 for plugin_hook in "${RBENV_ROOT}/plugins/"*/etc/rbenv.d; do
   RBENV_HOOK_PATH="${RBENV_HOOK_PATH}:${plugin_hook}"
 done
+RBENV_HOOK_PATH="${RBENV_HOOK_PATH#:}"
 export RBENV_HOOK_PATH
 
 shopt -u nullglob
diff --git a/test/rbenv.bats b/test/rbenv.bats
index 4e6b32b0..6ded889c 100644
--- a/test/rbenv.bats
+++ b/test/rbenv.bats
@@ -71,5 +71,5 @@ load test_helper
 
 @test "RBENV_HOOK_PATH includes rbenv built-in plugins" {
   run rbenv echo "RBENV_HOOK_PATH"
-  assert_success ":${RBENV_ROOT}/rbenv.d:${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME%/*}/rbenv.d:/usr/local/etc/rbenv.d:/etc/rbenv.d:/usr/lib/rbenv/hooks"
+  assert_success "${RBENV_ROOT}/rbenv.d:${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME%/*}/rbenv.d:/usr/local/etc/rbenv.d:/etc/rbenv.d:/usr/lib/rbenv/hooks"
 }