Contrast enhancement is particularly important for imaging of weakly absorbing materials. We demonstrate the inherent contrast-enhancement effect at the edges of a transparent object by using a conventional pulsed terahertz imaging setup without additional modification of the system design. We provide both experimental and theoretical evidence suggesting that this effect is a consequence of the frequency-dependent energy loss of the terahertz radiation induced by edge diffraction. The influence of the phase step of the broadband terahertz pulses on the edge contrast is discussed. © 2009 Chinese Optics Letters.