diff --git a/bash_completion b/bash_completion
index 5737e87f..9a948274 100644
--- a/bash_completion
+++ b/bash_completion
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #   bash_completion - some programmable completion functions for bash 2.05b
 #
-#   $Id: bash_completion,v 1.733 2004/07/05 23:35:36 ianmacd Exp $
+#   $Id: bash_completion,v 1.734 2004/07/05 23:45:00 ianmacd Exp $
 #
 #   Copyright (C) Ian Macdonald <ian@caliban.org>
 #
@@ -3449,19 +3449,20 @@ _comp-dpkg-installed-packages()
 #
 _dpkg()
 {
-	local cur prev
+	local cur prev i
 
 	COMPREPLY=()
 	cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
 	prev=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}
+	i=$COMP_CWORD
 
 	_expand || return 0
 
 	# find the last option flag
 	if [[ $cur != -* ]]; then
-		while [[ $prev != -* && $COMP_CWORD != 1 ]]; do
-		      COMP_CWORD=$((COMP_CWORD-1))
-		      prev=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}
+		while [[ $prev != -* && $i != 1 ]]; do
+			i=$((i-1))
+			prev=${COMP_WORDS[i-1]}
 		done
 	fi