diff --git a/namedev_parse.c b/namedev_parse.c
index 7cd676c39..02d8a6520 100644
--- a/namedev_parse.c
+++ b/namedev_parse.c
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ static int namedev_parse(const char *filename, void *data)
 
 		/* skip backslash and newline from multi line rules */
 		for (i = j = 0; i < count; i++) {
-			if (bufline[i] == '\\' || bufline[i] == '\n')
+			if (bufline[i] == '\\' && bufline[i+1] == '\n')
 				continue;
 
 			line[j++] = bufline[i];
diff --git a/test/udev-test.pl b/test/udev-test.pl
index fe7b93266..f442b162e 100644
--- a/test/udev-test.pl
+++ b/test/udev-test.pl
@@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ EOF
 KERNEL="ttyUSB0", \\
 NAME="visor"
 
+EOF
+	},
+	{
+		desc		=> "preserve backslashes, if they are not for a newline",
+		subsys		=> "tty",
+		devpath		=> "/class/tty/ttyUSB0",
+		exp_name	=> "aaa",
+		conf		=> <<EOF
+KERNEL="ttyUSB0", PROGRAM="/bin/echo -e \\101", RESULT="A", NAME="aaa"
 EOF
 	},
 	{