diff --git a/lib/rdoc/parser/ruby.rb b/lib/rdoc/parser/ruby.rb
index 130eca89c7..ce5b454bd5 100644
--- a/lib/rdoc/parser/ruby.rb
+++ b/lib/rdoc/parser/ruby.rb
@@ -1623,7 +1623,6 @@ class RDoc::Parser::Ruby < RDoc::Parser
   def parse_rescue
     skip_tkspace false
 
-    nest = 0
     while tk = get_tk
       case tk[:kind]
       when :on_nl, :on_semicolon, :on_comment then