diff --git a/modules/search/search.module b/modules/search/search.module
index fbd4438..276b69c 100644
--- a/modules/search/search.module
+++ b/modules/search/search.module
@@ -530,7 +530,7 @@ function search_index($sid, $type, $text) {
           if ($num || drupal_strlen($word) >= $minimum_word_size) {
             // Normalize numbers
             if ($num) {
-              $word = (int)ltrim($word, '-0');
+              $word = ltrim($word, '-0');
             }
 
             // Links score mainly for the target.
@@ -847,7 +847,7 @@ function _search_parse_query(&$word, &$scores, $not = FALSE) {
     foreach ($split as $s) {
       $num = is_numeric($s);
       if ($num || drupal_strlen($s) >= variable_get('minimum_word_size', 3)) {
-        $s = $num ? ((int)ltrim($s, '-0')) : $s;
+        $s = $num ? ltrim($s, '-0') : $s;
         if (!isset($scores[$s])) {
           $scores[$s] = $s;
           $num_new_scores++;