diff --git a/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/bpe-from-scratch.ipynb b/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/bpe-from-scratch.ipynb
index cad47a8..9ff3acc 100644
--- a/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/bpe-from-scratch.ipynb
+++ b/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/bpe-from-scratch.ipynb
@@ -609,9 +609,9 @@
     "                else:\n",
     "                    word = m.group(2)\n",
     "                    if pending_spaces > 0:\n",
-    "                        tokens.append(\"Ġ\" + word) # one leading space\n",
     "                        for _ in range(pending_spaces - 1):\n",
     "                            tokens.append(\"Ġ\")  # remaining spaces as standalone\n",
+    "                        tokens.append(\"Ġ\" + word) # one leading space\n",
     "                        pending_spaces = 0\n",
     "                    else:\n",
     "                        tokens.append(word)\n",
diff --git a/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/tests.py b/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/tests.py
index 1b570bf..8383842 100644
--- a/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/tests.py
+++ b/ch02/05_bpe-from-scratch/tests.py
@@ -238,4 +238,15 @@ def test_space_newline_space_patterns(imported_module, gpt2_files):
         "Hello\n world",
     ]
     for s in samples:
-        assert tok.encode(s) == tik.encode(s), f"Mismatch vs tiktoken: {repr(s)}"
\ No newline at end of file
+        assert tok.encode(s) == tik.encode(s), f"Mismatch vs tiktoken: {repr(s)}"
+
+
+def test_multiple_leading_spaces_roundtrip(imported_module, gpt2_files):
+    BPETokenizerSimple = getattr(imported_module, "BPETokenizerSimple", None)
+    tok = BPETokenizerSimple()
+    tok.load_vocab_and_merges_from_openai(
+        vocab_path=gpt2_files["encoder.json"], bpe_merges_path=gpt2_files["vocab.bpe"]
+    )
+
+    text = "  Hello World."
+    assert tok.decode(tok.encode(text)) == text