a weird logical fault ?

I am trying to receive and parse the following xml, and insert elements into fields in my database.
I am using a function that looks similar to this:

DECLARE
v_counter NUMBER;
v_brukerid varchar2(10);
v_mld_id varchar2(5);
v_xml xmltype;

BEGIN

v_xml := '
meldinger--
user--tom--/user
melding--
id--73--/id
--/melding
melding--
id--74--/id
--/melding
--/meldinger';


IF v_xml.existsnode(v_xmlsti || '/brukerid') = 1 THEN
v_user := fnc_hentverdi (v_xml,'/meldinger/brukerid/text()');
END IF;

v_counter := 1;

while v_xml.existsnode('/meldinger/melding['|| v_counter ||']') = 1 LOOP

v_mld_id := fnc_hentnrverdi (v_xml,'/meldinger/melding/id/text()');

INSERT INTO table1 (field1, field2)
VALUES (v_mld_id, v_brukerid);

v_counter := v_counter + 1;

END IF;

which I would expect to give

table1
-------------
tom 73
tom 74

but it gives as output

table1
-------------
tom 7374
tom 7374

I have done the same routine before, and then it worked fine.

how about if you change this:

v_mld_id := fnc_hentnrverdi (v_xml,'/meldinger/melding/id/text()');

to

v_mld_id := fnc_hentnrverdi (v_xml,'/meldinger/melding['|| v_counter ||']/id/text()');

?